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By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Oyo State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Chief Akin Oke on Friday said the party will not impose any candidate but conduct free, fair and credible primary election to elect candidates for the May 12 election into the 33 Local governments and 35 Local Council Development Areas in the state.
Addressing a press conference at the Oyo State secretariat of the party at Oke Ado, Ibadan, Chief Oke declared that contrary to the insinuation by some aggrieved APC members in the state, the party’s primaries for the council poll will come up on Monday, 19th February, 2018.
According to the APC Chairman while given the guidelines for the conduct of the primaries for APC aspirants in the forthcoming local government election in the state.,
the “Monday intra-party electoral process would be carried out in strict compliance with the provisions of the constitution of the party as it assured of a high level transparency and a hitch-free exercise'”
” I am using this opportunity to inform you that we have put all necessary arrangements in place to guarantee the credibility of the exercise and I am also appealing to all the aspirants as well as their supporters to embrace peace and the spirit of sportsmanship.” he said
Chief Oke added that “consensus option shall be encouraged where possible as this is clearly enshrined in the party constitution. Where a single aspirant is found either by virtue of other(s) stepping down for him/her or only he/she obtained the nomination form, congress would still hold to affirm his/her candidacy but both direct and indirect options would be employed in the cases of chairmanship and councillorship contests respectively.”
“For the councillorship primaries, the direct primaries options emphasised in the party constitution indicates that all registered party members would gather at their ward headquarters to carry out the process of nominating one out of the available number of aspirants and this is expected to take place between 8 am and 12 noon. “
Chief Oke maintained that ” it is expected that aspirants and their supporters would play game according to the rule and ensure that peace reign all through.” saying, ” between 2pm and 5pm on the same day, delegates made up of party faithful listed in the APC constitution would converge on the local government council secretariat or any other location endorsed by all stakeholders to pickk the best among the All aspirants for eachh of the 33 local government council areas and the 35 local council development areas in the state.”
Speaking further, the Oyo APC Chairman pointed out that “in
addition to the deployment of competent hands as electoral officers, the party has also invited relevant partners such as OYSIEC, security agencies and the press to monitor the exercise throughout the state.’
” Pointedly, I am using this opportunity to professionals and patriots in view of the roles you have played in the past to nurture and sustain the nation’s fledgling democracy. Having put all necessary machinery in place to guarantee a level playing field for all aspirant, we anticipate a successful exercise to shore up our rating as the best in terms of allowing internal democracy and the Chief Akin Oke-led executive committee of Oyo APC owes a duty to eulogise Senator Abiola Ajimobi who hhas created an enabling environment for the party to hold this particular exercise.”
The APC Chairman however lauded Governor Abiola Ajimobi for his support for the party, saying “we have been able to move this far because we hhave a leader in Senator Abiola Ajimobi who means well for the party and the masses as a whole. We have been able to prove the bookmakers wrong since this party primaries exercices is holding amidst speculation of planned imposition of candidates by the governor and the party leadership. Dounting Thomases within and outside would be made to eat their words in the end after we would have had a successful election in May,”
On the protest by some APC members on Monday over the coming council polls in the state, Chief Oke said the party was not aware of any protest as there was no letter as to such at the party’s state secretariat
