… As aspirants threaten to work against party in Ondo
There is acrimony among members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ifelodun, Boripe and Odo-Otin Local Governments of Osun state, as members have accused the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola of imposing a candidate on the Federal Constituency.
They also berated the Governor for alleged highhandedness in the manner selection was done without the general will of the people concerned.
According to a protest letter signed by the leader of the group, Mr Segun Adejumo, on Monday, Aregbesola and a former Secretary to the State Government, Engr. Sola Akinwumi were alleged to have declared one Rasheed Afolabi as the APC’s House of Representatives candidate for Ifelodun/Boripe/Odo-Otin Federal Constituency without any contest.
Adejumo said Afolabi was declared as the candidate of the Federal Constituency at the Osun State Government House to the dismay of other contestants, which ignited immediate reaction to condemn the development.
It was further gathered that members of the party in the three local governments that formed the federal constituency have rejected the party’s decision, describing it as antithetical to democratic principles.
The people accused Afolabi of anti-party and disloyalty, saying that he worked for the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the September 22 governorship election.
A member of the party in Ikirun, Bello Adeleke said APC would lose the House of Representatives election in the constituency with the alleged imposition, as he described the action of the party leaders as divisive.
Another APC member in Ikirun, Mr Rasak Marindoti stated that Afolabi has not been useful to the party, nor his community as the lawmaker representing Ifelodun constituency at the Osun State House of Assembly.
Meanwhile, some aspirants of the APC in Ondo State vying for the House of Assembly tickets as well as some members of the party in Owo Local Government Area have threatened to work against the party.
They stated this during a protest against an alleged imposition of candidates by the Ade Adetimehin-led executive of the party in the state.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions like ,”Aspirants demand equal rights”, “Owo will not tolerate imposition”, “Owo leaders mortgaging our future through imposition”.
One of the aspirants, Moses Oladugba alleged that there were no primaries in any part of the local government on Friday, as thugs were mobilized to disrupt the process.
Oladugba, an aspirant for Owo constituency 1, threatened to work against the interest of the party in the next year’s elections if nothing is done to correct the injustice.
“It is very sad that after spending over N1.3 million purchasing forms, the party did not allow any primary election to take place by sending thugs to chase people away. No election took place, they just write figures.
“These people (APC leadership) called us on Thursday to protest against imposition of Sen. Ajayi Boroffice representing Ondo North Senatorial District.
“We did this and now on Friday they imposed candidates on the people. What do we call that?
“I want to appeal to the national leadership of the party to quickly do something now, otherwise we will work against APC and we will ensure the party lose in 2019,” he said.
Another aspirant, Mr Babatunde Olaposi also told newsmen that no election took place in the constituency.
“We are protesting what happened where they imposed someone on us. We can’t get it right if this is how the state government want to continue.
“There was no election at all on Friday, we heard later that someone has won, even when there was no election. Very unfortunate,” he said.
