Barely a week to the conduct of Ondo governorship election, the troubleshooting efforts by the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have suffered setbacks.
Certain chieftains of the ruling party have rebuffed the entreaties of the Abdullahi Ganduje-led National Working Committee and have vowed to undermine the party candidate in the election, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the APC national chairman had penultimate week in Akure met with some of the aggrieved aspirants who lost the ticket to the incumbent Ondo Governor where they pledged to work for the victory of the party.
But certain chieftains operating under the platform, Ondo Patriots in a fresh petition dated November 6, 2024 and addressed to APC national chairman dropped the hint that they have adopted the Social Democratic Party candidate,Otunba Benson Akingboye, as their preferred choice for next weekend off-season governorship election in the state.
In the petition signed by Comrade Dele Oyewo, the Forum Coordinator, they maintained that the manner Governor Aiyedatiwa emerged as the party candidate was inimical to party cohesion and promotion of internal democracy.
While accusing APC national leadership of lack of sincerity, the Forum declared that they were convinced of the victory of the SDP in the forthcoming election.
The letter addressed to Ganduje reads in part:”Following the background that our dear party leadership in Abuja has taken to be on the side of governor Aiyedatiwa’s questionable emergence at the shallow primaries conducted in April 2024, the leadership of the various organizing groups within the party structure in the state for the umpteenth time hereby re-emphasize that it is going to be almost impossible to work with the party and the governor on November 16th gubernatorial election. This is not unconnected with the facts that youth’s kind gesture and loyalty have severally been taking for granted not only in Ondo state but in the country at large.
“In the spiritual realm the primitive and dangerous atmosphere of the do or die primary conducted by governor Ododo of Kogi state on the instruction of Aiyedatiwa is not only inimical but detrimental to the fortune of the good people of our state, according to the natural laws guiding existence. But we discovered that the party leadership in Abuja is not in any way concerned about the wellbeing of citizens of Ondo state, rather they prefer their own choice of settlement over any form of resulting consequences.
“The voices of people in ondo state-an appendages of the APC hereby condemn what it described as derailment and gross misconduct against the party ethics in line with choice of Gov. Aiyedatiwa if truly we are different from PDP and that we do to the letter what we preached before 2015 general elections.
“Having gone through credentials (in terms of Karma status in the spiritual realm that will not spell doom for our dear state) of all the major contenders for the forthcoming governorship election in our dear state, we the major APC groups in Ondo state have decided to pick Otunba Benson Akingboye of Social Democratic party as our choice. “However silent mobilization has been ongoing but we decided this time, to inform our party because of myriad of I don care attitude that the APC leadership in Abuja have been displaying to matters like this that concerns the youth of Ondo state long before. We cannot continue to die in silence and showcase total loyalty to the destiny wasters in our state.
Otunba Benson Akingboye is more or less an APC family whose track and philosophy are similar to that of our dear president Tinubu. He had on various platforms recognized His excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as an epitome of modern politics that Nigeria can have. If truly the party leadership is concerned about the great future of our dear party and the good people of Ondo state, it will see this write-up as a clarion call rather than attack on the party. “We are monitoring all the activities very closely from all quarters. We pray that in a bid to favor gov. Aiyedatiwa, some people will not set Ondo state on Fire. Meanwhile what would eventually remove governor Aiyedatiwa from office is already cooking even when he is forcefully declared as the winner of the election. We have told our people not to waste their precious votes!”
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