Niyi Akande, Osogbo.
Prominent leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ifelodun/Boripe/Odo-otin federal constituency of Osun State have
called on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to upturn the alleged imposition of Mr Olalekan Afolabi as the candidate of the party in the next year’s House of Representatives election.
The APC chieftains alleged that Afolabi, a serving member of the Osun State House of Assembly was imposed on the party by the state Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola without recourse to the party’s constitution or electoral guidelines which stipulates that candidates
for elective positions emerge through direct or indirect primary system.
In a petition addressed to the National Chairman of the party, Mr Adams Oshiomhole and signed by over 4,000 members of the party in the constituency, copy of which was made available to newsmen in Osogbo
yesterday, the party leaders including, Messrs Lere Okunlola, Adebisi Gbolagade and Alhaja Tayo Adebisi complained that the process through which Afolabi emerged was alien to the party.
They also alleged that Afolabi had before the September 22 governorship election held in the state decamped to the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and allegedly used all his resources to garner support for the governorship candidate of the ADP, Alhaji Moshood
Adeoti.
Specifically, the party elders who described the alleged imposition of Afolabi as a fraud and cheating on all the members of the party in the constituency called on the party’s NWC to reverse the candidature of Afolabi and allowed primary election to hold in the constituency for the best candidate to emerge.
They argued that the APC will loose the election should the alleged injustice be allowed to stay, noting that “the APC is under serious threat now in Ifelodun/Boripe/Odo-otin federal constituency, and we cannot guarantee the victory of the party in the House of Representatives election, should this injustice go unaddressed.”
Besides, the APC leaders stressed the need for the party’s NWC to investigate the manner at which Afolabi emerged as the party’s
candidate for the House of Representatives and intervene in the crisis already rocking the party in the federal constituency, failure of
which they said could lead to defeat for the APC in the constituency
come 2019.
The party leaders reaffirmed their belief in the leadership of Oshiomhole and his ability to find a lasting solution to the crisis within the party, just as they called for primary election for the emergence of all political positions in the next year’s election.
