…To convey decision to party
Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the south west on Tuesday met with the 33 aspirants contesting the Ekiti governorship primary to address issues that led to the disruption of the primary, saying they have arrived at a decision that will be in the overall interest of the party and the nation.
The meeting called at the instance of the National Leader of the party was attended by majority of the aspirants as well as leaders of the party in the South-West; with Chief Bisi Akande saying that the resolution of the meeting will be conveyed to the leadership of the party on Wednesday.
Leaders of the party in the South West who attend does the meeting include pioneer national chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, former Ogun state Governor, Chief Segun Osoba, former Ekiti state governor Otumba Niyi Adebayo and the Zonal Vice Chairman Chief Pius Akinyelure.
Minister of Solid Mineral who was one of the aspirants who attended the meeting left the venue at about 6.32pm when the meeting went on break to allow the leaders take a decision in accordance with the agreement the aspirants.
Although The Nation learnt that the Minister wanted to leave the venue of the meeting before the break, it was not clear whether he left in anger as he did not display any emotion while leaving, refusing however to speak to the Press.
Former Deputy National Chairman of the party and one of the aspirants, Engr. Segun Oni dismissed claims that one of the aspirants walked out, saying “nobody walked out of the meeting. We are on break and will reconvene”.
He also dismissed the option of going for a consensus, saying ” we are not considering that. We are going for election “, a position which was echoed by Senator Ayo Arise.
Chairman of the Primary Election Committee and Nasarawa state governor, Tanko AlMakura however arrived the venue of the meeting at about 7.05 and went into a meeting with the leaders from.the south west who were already meeting.
The meeting with the aspirants resumed at about 7.30 with AlMakura and members of the primary committee in attendance, but without the Minister of Solid Mineral and Senator Ayo Arise in attendance.
Speaking with newsmen after the meeting, former National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande said the meeting took a decision they felt will be in the general interest of the party and the nation.
He said they will convey the decision they arrived at at the end of the meeting to the leadership of the party, saying “we will convey our resolution to the party and the party will be able to tell you.
“We took a decision on what will be the best advantage to our party and the country. Consensus is already written in our constitution and it is an option. Also primary election is already in our constitution. But what we want is the general happiness of the leaders of the party, the contestants and our party.”
On whether the aspirants agreed to step down for one of them, he said “that option is given to them, but it require them going back, think about it and inform us.
On fresh primary, he said “we are going to talk to the party about what the aspirants have said and what we all thought was best and we know that the party will take the right decision.
“The party choose the old date, choose the modalities and the method of doing it and when it was aborted, the party it cancelled it. Who am I to say I disagree with that. I was not part of that process. I am now going to be part of the new process so that we don’t have the kind of problems we had.”
As part of its mission to rekindle hope in Nigeria’s democratic process and combat voter apathy, the Advocacy for Integrity and Rule of Law Initiative in Nigeria (AIRLIN) has inaugurated its 16th office in Jigawa State, continuing its expansion across the 19 northern states of Nigeria.
