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Ondo guber: APC aspirants crave for fair play, transparency

By Oluwaseun Akingboye, Akure
27 July 2016   |   2:59 am
Most of the aspirants jostling for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the scheduled November 26 Ondo State governorship election, have expressed two major concerns on how the leadership ...
Mimiko

Mimiko

PDP douses tension over primary, sets up reconciliatory committee

Most of the aspirants jostling for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the scheduled November 26 Ondo State governorship election, have expressed two major concerns on how the leadership of the party should handle its preparations for the exercise.

One, the aspirants noted that the leadership of the party, should not repeat the mistake of 2011 to either directly or indirectly impose any aspirant as its candidate. Rather, they advised that the primary should be open, transparent, fair and competitive.

To them if this is done, the party stood a better chance to take advantage of the fractured ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election.

Secondly, they admonished the leadership of the party never to take the election lackadaisically or underrate the incumbent governor, Dr. Segun Mimiko and the PDP.

Meanwhile, the PDP is determined to put its house in order and douse the tension that was generated among members and governorship aspirants in particular following the jostle for advantage ahead its primaries.

Already, the party leadership in the North Senatorial District inaugurated a five-man committee to resolve the dispute with the main objective to checkmate the rival APC, fortify the party and reposition it for the governorship election.

A member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the APC, Chief Jamiu Ekungba, who is also interested in the governorship race, admonished the party’s leadership and people of the state not rest on their oars in the forthcoming election.

Speaking while declaring to contest for the party’s ticket, at the APC state secretariat in Akure, the BoT member urged the people not to underestimate the strength of the ruling party in the state despite the crisis rocking the PDP primaries.

He claimed that Mimiko has lost the confidence of the people and grip of the state, but said the party must still work more to outmatch his political antics.

While he concurred other APC members that Mimiko has disappointed the people, he stated: “but to think that you can oust him without exerting and exhausting yourself, is a careless presumption. To think that the miasma of angry confusion in PDP will stop Mimiko from daring the party or invading it, is to perjury yourself.

“To think that Mimiko and his henchmen will not put up a fight in the coming contest between old visions and new possibilities is not just a lie or a fun, it is a tall tale, and that tall tale is our greatest enemy,” he said.

The APC aspirant warned further saying, “But will Mimiko be a push over, and is PDP actually doomed? Those who think this way are either underrating or misjudging the task, and it could be that they do not understand the jungle, Ondo is today.”

He noted that whosoever must defeat the candidate of the PDP and Governor Mimiko among the APC aspirants in the poll must have better qualification.

“If you are looking for governor with extra ordinary ability, whose years and time in the State House will mark the arrival of Ondo State as a regional force you need to look for, no one but Jamiu Afolabi Ekungba,” he said.

For Rotimi Akeredolu, who was the party’s governorship candidate in the 2011 governorship election in which the party lost abysmally to the incumbent governor, his confidence was in the party’s primary.

According to him, the first and credible line to tow, which would also guarantee the party’s hope of ousting the ruling PDP was for the leadership to conduct a free, fair and credible primary election.

He alluded to the successful and credible primaries conducted in Kogi and Edo states recently, declaring fervent trust in the party leadership that the August 27 primary in Ondo State won’t be an exception.

According to him, “I have absolute confidence in the party, we did it with President Buhari, it was transparent, we have done it in so many states, we did it in Edo, it was also transparent, so Ondo State can not be different,” he said.

In similar vein, the APC Senator representing Ondo Central Senatorial District, Tayo Alasoadura said accountability and transparency was the only prerequisite for good governance in the country.

While flaying the Mimiko’s government for allegedly plunged Ondo down the valley in the last eight years, Alasoadura argued that since the creation of the state 40 years ago, it was only during the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu administration that government created a forum for transparency and accountability.

He said any government without such viable economic policy as “a leaking bucket; if water is put in the bucket and it is leaking, the water will keep on going down and nobody will enjoy the leakage because it will go straight into the ground. The same thing happens in financial cases.”

While dismissing as tissue of rumor that the party has already adopted a sole candidate, another aspirant, Segun Abraham said the national and zonal leaders have not endorsed any candidate.

Makarfi

Makarfi

According to him, “People are peddling rumours, telling lies and fabricating all sorts of things. Instead of going to the field to campaign, a particular candidate has been going round deceiving the people and himself about an imaginary endorsement by our leaders. It is not true. That is their trademark. They are panicking. They are afraid because of the tough challenges ahead.

On how the party could avert crisis during the primary, Abraham said, “Some of the guidelines are out now. The aspirants know themselves. The leadership of our party has assured that there will be no imposition of candidate; that we will have a credible and transparent primary. We are warming up. The aspirants are also meeting. Our party will promote fairness, justice and equity. The aspirants will know their fate when delegates vote at the primary. There will be no crisis because our party is a party of decency, justice, equity and fair play.”

Another aspirant, Boye Oyewunmi said A unique aspect of the 2016 governorship election in the state, particularly as the APC prepares to conduct its primary is the assurance by the party leadership to ensure free, fair and level playing ground for any of the governorship aspirants to emerge as the party’s candidate.

Oyewunmi is basking in the assurance that the leadership of the APC will not interfere with the governorship primary, as some people appear to be thinking.

Meanwhile the committee that was set up in Akure by leaders of PDP in Ondo North, where they agreed to support the aspiration of Eyitayo Jegede, and persuade other aspirants to support the decision urged other aspirants from Ondo North to see reason why the party should be united.

The aspirants from Ondo North had been irked that Jegede from Ondo Central was being propped up to be the party’s candidate.

The convener of the meeting, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Chief Femi Adekanmbi explained that the zone decided to support the immediate past Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, because he has the capacity to win the election.

Adekanmbi said Jegede could also lay claim to Ondo North senatorial district as his mother is from Ipele in Owo local government area.

The leaders said what was important to the party in the state was not the zoning arrangement, but the need to win the governorship election.

Among the leaders in the meeting were the chairmen of local governments, commissioners and party officials from the North District, the pioneer state chairman of PDP, Col Batunde Awodeyi (rtd), Mrs. Yemisi Eniolorunda, Mrs. Mobolaji Suuara, and Mr, Ojo Adewale.

The aggrieved aspirants included: Prince Bamiduro Dada, Alhaji Yekini Olanipekun, Mr. Dayo Fadahunsi, Prince Nekan Olateru-Olagbegi, Hon Bakitta Bello, Senator Remi Okunrinboye and Otunba Gbenga Elegbeleye.

The aggrieved aspirants had earlier insisted they would not participate in the party’s primary involving anybody from Ondo Central Senatorial District because of the perceived endorsement of Jegede by Governor Mimiko.

But at the meeting, the leaders of the party from the zone reiterated the need for the committee headed by former Minister of Education, Dr Ade Abitoye, to meet with the aspirants in order to work as a team for the forthcoming election.

The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Abitoye said he would convene a meeting of all the aspirants and expressed the optimism that the leaders would address their grievances adequately.

Abitoye said the party could not toy with the forthcoming election, as it needed to put its house in order so as to go to the election as one indivisible entity.

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