Ogun LG poll: APC members allege imposition of candidates

Some aggrieved members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State have appealed to the State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, to immediately save the party from imminent crisis.

The party faithful, who expressed concern over the gale of imposition of candidates within the APC ahead of the July 24 local government elections in the state, said Governor Abiodun, as the overall leader of the party, must rise to the occasion and rescue it from the grip of self-serving individuals masquerading as leaders.

This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday, which was signed on behalf of the concerned APC members by an Ikenne Local Government based politician, Hon. Sonuga Ramoni, a leader and youth activist from Ikenne Local Govt area of the State.

Sonuga alleged that the procedure adopted by some party leaders to choose chairmanship and councillorship candidates in Ikenne Local Government Area and several other local governments in the state was fraught with widespread irregularities and barefaced fraud.

He warned that failure to redress the injustice meted out to many genuine and committed aspirants within Ogun APC may spell doom for the ruling party in the nearest future.

Sonuga noted that though not all aspirants can emerge as party candidates for elections, the APC in the state would have been saved from needless strife and agitation if popular will of majority of party members and leaders was allowed to prevail in the selection process.

He said, "We need to let the whole world know that the procedures adopted by some leaders of the party in many wards and local government areas grossly fell short of the directive by the Governor for candidates to emerge either through consensus or primaries.

"Rather than abide by the directive of the Governor in the overall interest of APC members, some desperate party leaders have been imposing candidates to the detriment of our great party. This development has inevitably caused agitations and protests across board.

"We are, therefore, concerned that if the agitations occasioned by the undemocratic selection of chairmanship and councillorship candidates are not looked into, it may spell doom for our party. Certainly, what we abhor is disintegration of the party.

Our amiable governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, should please intervene and address the widespread irregularities in the primaries.

"We want Gov Dapo Abiodun and top party leaders to allow democracy to play its role by ensuring that names of chairmanship and councillorship candidates as recently announced by the leaders of wards in the just concluded primaries in their various wards to be submitted by the party and not those who lost out the primaries but are now being smuggled through the backdoor because they know one party leader or the other. Except justice is served on this matter, this great injustice may lead to avoidable crisis in the party and the upcoming local government election”.