Aspirants hopeful for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of Ondo State governorship election, yesterday, shunned the stakeholders’ meeting held in Akure, the state capital.
The meeting, which was called at the behest of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, was held at the International Culture and Event Centre (The Dome) as the party prepares for its primary in April.
The Guardian gathered that major gladiators seeking the party’s ticket, such as Olusola Oke, Isaacs Kekemeke, Gbenga Oedema, Jimoh Ibrahim, Wale Akinterinwa, Jimi Odimayo, Mayowa Akinfolarin and Olamide Ohunyeye, among others, were absent at the meeting. Oke said he received an invitation to the meeting at 2:30 a.m. when it had already been scheduled for 11:00 a.m.
Also, Akinfolarin said that he was not invited to the meeting along with his political associates.
“I didn’t receive any invitation for the meeting. Even none of my political associates were invited.”
However, during the meeting, Aiyedatiwa urged the party’s stalwarts to embrace peace ahead of the polls. He said: “We must all come together as one family to work together for the progress of our party, knowing for sure this is an election here for us.
“Let us work together in oneness and in peace so that our party, the APC, will continue to govern this state. It is important for me to tell you that as leaders of our party, we must put behind us the events of the last few months and come together as one big family for the progress of the APC and the development of our dear state.
“To me, what happened in the past was just politics. It was not a fight or a battle but mere politics. I can say that I did not take any offence from that. The most important thing for us is to remain one big family. There should be no division in the party.
“There is a need to make our party stronger, and that necessitated the idea of this enlarged stakeholders’ meeting to bring everybody on board.” Aiyedatiwa, who paid tributes to his late boss, Akeredolu, promised that the state government would work with the family to give him a befitting state burial and to immortalise his name and legacies.
