Some All Progressives Congress governorship aspirants in Ondo State have rejected plan by a group of elders in the party to pick a consensus candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in the state scheduled to hold on Saturday, 26th November 2016.
According to Punch newspaper, it was reported that the elders were making an arrangement for all the APC governorship aspirants to produce a consensus candidate in Akoko in order to enable an Akoko indigene win the party’s primary.
The aspirants said in the statement that section 20 of the APC Constitution empowered only the National Executive Committee of the party to provide the guidelines for the conduct of congresses at an appropriate time.
“We also need to state affirmatively that we will not recognise or accept the decision taken at the Baba Felix Aiyegbusi’s residence as binding on us (because) the meeting has the potential to cause serious and dangerous disunity in Akoko”.
“It is terribly subjective, considering the fact that many of the so-called elders at that meeting are already in the campaign team of at least one candidate. In fact, they go from one location to another with a particular candidate.”
The aspirants said the constitution of the APC recognized only two methods through which candidates could emerge, which are either by internal party election or by a consensus among aspirants and that the method proposed by the elders is unconstitutional, stressing that they would disregard the outcome of the meeting.