The crisis rocking the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) deepened on Wednesday as six of the governorship aspirants that jostled for the party’s ticket insisted that the party is yet to have a candidate for the next election.
The aspirants made their position known while speaking with newsmen after an engagement with the reconciliation committee put in place to resolve the issues that came out from the choice of a candidate.
The aspirants who met the committee were Engineer Hakeem Alao, Engineer Rauf Olaniyan, Dr Ayobami Lam-Adesina, Barrister Akeem Agbaje, Mr Ololade Bakare and Barrister Musibau Asanike.
It would be recalled that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had posted the name of the senator representing Oyo South senatorial district, Senator Sharafadeen Alli as its governorship candidate in Oyo State.
The choice of Alli has however led to crisis among members of the party, including some of the governorship aspirants with the development leading to protests at the party’s state secretariat.
However, speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of their meeting with the reconciliation committee led by Senator Femi Lanlehin, one of the aspirants, Alao, while speaking on behalf of his colleagues, insisted that the party is yet to have a governorship candidate contrary to the claim that a particular aspirant has been elected.
He said that they have made their position known to the committee, adding that there are pending cases to be resolved on the emergence of a particular aspirant as candidate.
“We have intimated the committee of our grievances and we made our position known. Just like you have asked, that is there candidate, there is no candidate for now.
“And we have not fulfilled the provisions of the electoral law.
“We have made our position known to the committee and the committee is going to deliberate on it extensively. It is still a family. We are going to have a candidate at the end of the day. Whoever is picked at the end of the day, we are going to work with the person but as at now, we have no gubernatorial candidate in APC,” he stated.
Asanike in his own contribution, charged the committee to consider the recommendations made by the aspirants.
“We had a meeting. The intention is to have a united party. We have made our submission and we believe they will fulfill it.
“We are still waiting for them to give us feedback. We want to win the presidential election and gubernatorial election in Oyo State. That is the reason we made ourselves available for the reconciliation committee to meet us,” he said.
