From
Left: Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom; PDP National Chairman, Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur, and PDP National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola,
at a PDP National Working Committee/Induction Policy Retreat in Uyo on
Monday (18/6/12).
ABUJA — THE national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,
yesterday asked the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to stop fooling
Nigerians about its democratic posture.
According to PDP, ACN is “a brood of dictators whose deceit and
pretense to democracy are consistently hobbled by its habitual
disregard for the rudiments of democratic process.”
The PDP in a statement, yesterday, by its National Publicity
Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, also asked the ACN to tell Nigerians how
the former President of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr Rotimi
Akeredolu, emerged as the governorship candidate of ACN for the Ondo
election.
This came barely 24 hours after the PDP tonguelashed ACN of non adherence to due process in the emergence of Akeredolu.
Metuh while reacting to the denial by the National Publicity
Secretary of the ACN, Mr Lai Mohammed, that his party was yet to choose
its gubernatorial candidate for the October 20 election in Ondo State,
urged the “ACN to emerge from its cocoon of deceit to own up to its
artful preference for the undemocratic style.
He said: “Who is fooling who? The ACN apparatchiks under its Pontifex
Maximus met in Lagos in clear aberration of all known tenets of
democracy and handpicked Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, the former President of
the Nigerian Bar Association, as its candidate. The facts are there.”
According to the PDP spokesperson, “if Akeredolu has not been
handpicked in the ACN’s usual closed door, why are other aspirants
protesting? Why are some of the 30 aspirants already going public with
their disgust and frustration with the on-going shenanigans in the ACN?”
Confusion in Ogun over LG polls
In Abeokuta,Ogun State capital, as the deadline for the substitution
of chairmanship candidates by political parties given by Ogun State
Independent Electoral Commission, OGSIEC, formally closed on Saturday
night ahead of the July 14 local government elections, the electoral
body and even the leading contending parties are in state of confusion
over fielding of candidates for the crucial election.
As at 4.00pm yesterday, the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN,
and leading opposition party, PDP, are having before the commission, two
separate lists from factions presenting their chairmanship and
councillorship candidates.
Trouble began when the secretary of ACN, Alhaji Safi Awofeso sent
another list of candidates, asking OGSIEC to disregard the earlier one
sent to it.
Aggrieved aspirants threaten to defect
The development has further compounded the crisis in ACN, as some
aggrieved aspirants have threatened to defect to other political parties
if the alleged imposition of candidates is not revisited before the end
of the replacement and substitution of candidates which ended yesterday
as stipulated by the state electoral body.
A member of the commission and chairman of the screening committee,
Mutiu Agboke, yesterday, denied receiving two lists fron ACN.
Aspirants accuse Amosun of imposition
Meantime, nine chairmanship aspirants of the ACN in Remo North Local
Government Area of Ogun State have rejected the nomination of Chief
Olufemi Shoyemi as the party’s flag bearer in the forthcoming council
poll in the state.
The aspirants, who registered their rejection in a communiqué at the
end of a meeting, yesterday, accused Gov. Amosun of imposing Shoyemi on
the people.
Among the signatories are: Adebari Ajayi, Odofin Ajayi, Pelumi
Olusola, Omotayo Ayodele, Comrade Adesegun Bamodu, Adekoya Sofodu,
Olukayode Azeez Soetan, Enitan Olatunji Sofolabo and Samuel Segun Idowu.
“At a meeting held at Ilara Remo, Ogun State, we collectively and
equivocally reject the imposition of Chief Olufemi Shoyemi as the
party’s flagbearer in the forth coming LG elections in Ogun State.” the
aggrieved aspirants stated.
They contended that Shoyemi did not have the political relevance in
his war d 9 in Ode Remo and the entire Remo North LGA hence he shall be
unable to deliver the LGA to the party during the forthcoming election.
According to them, “we the aspirants and our numerous party
supporters of LGA hereby dissociate ourselves from the imposition by
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State.”
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