On Tuesday May 12, the factional group in Ondo state All Progressives Congress (APC) known as Unity Forum, announced the adoption of Chief Olusola Oke as its preferred choice to tackle Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu in the primaries ahead of the October 20 election.
Oke’s announcement came after the screening report of the unity forum by former deputy governor, Alhaji Ali Olanusi was made public.
Since the announcement on Tuesday, reactions have continued to trial the development, most especially from members of the unity forum.
Reacting, the Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Prof. Ajayi Boroffice said the Unity Forum has no consensus candidate, while urging governorship aspirants to start preparations for the direct primaries of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State.
“The fact is that Unity Forum has no consensus candidate. This fact is premised on two fundamental reasons.
“Firstly, the political tendencies in Unity Forum could not agree on critical processes that could have led to adoption of consensus candidate. For instance, while some members opted for zoning, some members disagreed. Recently, aspirants participated in a zoning process and majority agreed that Ondo North senatorial district should produce the consensus candidate.
“Secondly, when the idea of consensus candidacy was mooted, the understanding was that all seven members of Gubernatorial Candidate Selection Committee must unanimously agree on a consensus candidate. That condition has not been met.
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“Therefore, it is the consensus opinion of majority of leaders and members of Unity Forum in Ondo North senatorial district and other parts of Ondo State that Unity Forum is yet to present a consensus candidate”, Boroffice said.
Similarly, one of the ten governorship aspirants in the APC Unity Forum, Prince Dapo Adelegan had rejected the decision of the group that adopted Chief Olusola Oke as its consensus candidate for the July 2020 APC governorship primaries.
“We write to react to the porported announcement of the Unity Forum on the acceptance of a consensus candidate for the APC 2020 election as follows:
“Prince Dapo Adelegan was not a party to any meeting or decision process to announce a consensus candidate.
“To the best of our understanding, the other aspirants are still discussing amongst themselves on the possibility of a consensus candidate
“Hence, we continue to stand on our independent and genuine aspiration to contest for the governorship of Ondo State, and our engagement with the leaders of the party and various interest groups across the state is ongoing, and yielding positive result.
“Our expectation is that by July 2020, an APC candidate will emerge from a formal Primaries and will move on to emerge as the governor of Ondo State in October of 2020 by God’s grace.
“We ask our supporters to continue to pray and canverse for a new Ondo State come February 2020. Let us together change the narrative for the better,” his media office said in a statement.
Also, the APC unity group Elders forum in a statement by its chairman, Chief S. A. Idris and Secretary, Chief Bayo Olafusi said it has suspended Ali Olanusi, leader of the forum from the APC.
“That Alhaji Ali Olanusi deliberately manipulated the selection of the members of the Seven (7) Man Aspirant Screening Committee to propagate his personal agenda, which is to pave way for PDP total takeover of South West Nigeria before 2023 presidential election.
“Aligning with the position of the Nine (9) out of Ten (10) APC Unity Group Aspirants and in the interest of fair play, H.E Alhaji Ali Olanusi is hereby removed as the Chairman of All Progressives Congress Unity Group in Ondo state, for his high handedness and manipulative tendencies”, the group said.
Meanwhile, Oke in his reaction said those aggrieved with the outcome of the unity forum’s decision should sheathe their sword unite in order to win the primaries election.
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