Ondo: APC aspirants absent at Aiyedatiwa’s stakeholders meeting

The cracks within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State appear to be widening with the conspicuous absence of notable aspirants for the governorship ticket of the party at a meeting called at the instance of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa on Monday.

Aiyedatiwa at the meeting, held at the International Event Centre, Dome emphasised that the governor’s seat is not currently vacant, urging party members to come together as one united family.

Speaking, Aiyedatiwa said, “We must all come together as one family to work together for the progress of our party, knowing for sure this is an election here for us. Let us work together In oneness and in peace so that our party, APC, will continue to govern this State.”

However, an executive member of the state APC, who spoke with Nigerian Tribune, on condition of anonymity, said all the aspirants shunned the meeting because the parley was called personally by Aiyedatiwa who failed to route it through the party leadership.

He said: “Most of the aspirants shunned the meeting because it was not a party affair and most of the party executive were personally invited by the governor, not the party leadership.”

Nigerian Tribune observed that major aspirants including Olusola Oke, Isaacs Kekemeke, Wale Akinterinwa, Jimi Odimayo, Jimoh Ibrahim, Mayowa Akinfolarin, Olamide Ohunyeye were absent at the meeting.

Speaking on his absence, Oke said he would have loved to attend the meeting but that he got the invitation on his mobile phone around 2:30 a.m. on Monday, while he was in Abuja.

He argued that there was no way he could have traveled to Akure to attend a meeting slated for 11 a.m. while he left Akure for Abuja around 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Oke said, “I got the invitation around 2:30 a.m. in the middle of the night and I was already in Abuja.

“I don’t know if they deliberately sent the invitation at that time of the night because as of 3 p.m. yesterday, I was still in Ondo state and no such invitation was extended to me”

Also speaking, an aspirant, Honourable Mayowa Akinfolarin denied any knowledge of the meeting adding that his political associates and followers were also shut out of the stakeholders meeting.

However, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Aiyedatiwa, Mr Ebenezer Adeniyan, said all the aspirants were invited to the meeting.

According to Adeniyan, all of them were invited to the meeting through their local government, saying no APC stakeholder was left behind in the meeting.

But Aiyedatiwa stated at the meeting, which was attended by members of his cabinet: “It is important for me to tell you that as leaders of our party, we must put behind us the events of the last few months and come together as one big family for the progress of the APC and the development of our dear State.

“To me, what happened in the past was just politics. It was not a fight; it was not a battle; it was mere politics and I can say that I did not take any offence from that. The most important thing for us is to remain as one big family. There should be no division in our party.

“There is the need to make our party stronger and that necessitated the idea of this enlarged stakeholders meeting to bring everybody on board. Our party leaders and members are critical stakeholders that we cannot afford to neglect.

“There have been complaints from many of our party officers at local levels of not being carried along in the scheme of things, that must now be a thing of the past. All our party officers from ward to local government to state levels will be given the recognition they deserve.”

The governor paid glowing tributes to former governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, promising that the state government will work with the family to give him a befitting state burial and to immortalize his name and legacies.

Speaking earlier, the state chairman of the APC, Ade Adetimehin commended the governor for the timely engagement of party stakeholders, stressing that party leaders must put the past behind them to foster unity ahead of the coming governorship election.