Ondo APC Aspirants From Akeredolu's LGA Vow To Work Against Party In 2019

"Look at them imposing some candidates on us. What should we call this? I want to appeal to the national leadership of the party to quickly do something. If not, we would work against APC and we will ensure the party loses in 2019 here in Ondo State," one of the aggrieved aspirants said.

Aggrreived aspirants from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State have threatened to work against the party in the 2019 general election.

The aspirants, who are mainly contesting for seats in the House of Assembly, were protesting the "imposition of candidates by the leaders of the party".

SaharaReporters noted that some of the aspirants are from Owo Local Goverment Area, which is Governor Rotimi Akeredolu's LGA.

Staging a protest in Owo on Monday to express their grievances, the aspirants specifically accused the Ondo State Chairman, Ade Adetimehin, of trying to impose candidates.

Moses Oladugba, one of the angry aspirants, said: "No primaries took place as purportedly reported in the Local Government Area."

Oladugba, who is seeking the ticket of Owo Constituency I at the House of Assembly, noted that thugs who were sponsored by politicians disrupted process at the weekend, and threatened to work against the interest of the APC in the 2019 elections, if nothing is done to correct the injustice.

He continued: "It is very sad that after spending over N1.3 million purchasing forms, the party did not allow any primary election to take place. Some armed thugs were sent to chase the people away from the venue, and no election took place. Instead, they just wrote the figures. These people who sent thugs to disrupt the primary election had called us last week (Thursday) to stage protest against imposition of Senator Ajayi Boroffice representing Ondo North Senatorial District.

"Now, look at them imposing some candidates on us. What should we call this? I want to appeal to the national leadership of the party to quickly do something. If not, we would work against APC and we will ensure the party loses in 2019 here in Ondo State."

Babatunde Olaposi, another of the aspirants, also said election did not take place in his constituency.

"We cannot get it right if this is how the state government under Rotimi Akeredolu want to continue as a governor and leader of this party. There was no election at all on Friday and we heard later someone has won, even when there was no election," he said.

In a related development, Mayokun Alade, an APC aspirant, has said there was no primary election in Akure South/North area of Ondo State.

Alade, who is contesting the House of Representatives seat in Akure South/North Federal Constituency, accused the party leaders of writing a list of 'consensus candidates'. He disclosed that the election was also disrupted by armed thugs, who shot sporadically to scare people away in Iju/Itaogbolu to disrupt the process of the election.

He said: "The leadership of the APC in Akure is trying to impose some aspirants on us. Now, we are asking them to explain where we are going before the 2019 general election. We have to conduct a new primary in Ondo State because if there was no new election, that means APC will not have any candidate for those seats in the 2019 general election.

"We spent millions of Naira and we also went for the screening. This is a progressive party, but I cannot see any progression in the party. I'm going to stand with APC, but it is better we stay together to fight a common cause and what we are asking for is free and fair primary."