The battle of who will be picked as the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate in the upcoming governorship election in Ondo State is being intensified.
The incumbent Governor reportedly got an endorsement from the national working committee from the ruling party as the most preferred candidate. However the party has denied ever giving such approval.
Like the Edo State chapter of the party, the Ondo APC is also split into factions. One faction is loyal to Akeredolu while the other is opposed to his re-election.
The party’s primary in Ondo holds on July 20 while the governorship election holds on October 10.
APC National Working Committee (NWC), while dismissing the reports accredited to the Unity Group in the state chapter of the party via its twitter handle, stated that it never endorsed the Governor for a second term in office.
The party would hold its governorship primary in Ondo State on July 20.
The statement read: “We hereby refute this spurious statement and wish to state unequivocally that neither the National Chairman nor any member of the Party’s National Working Committee (NWC) has the power to endorse any aspirant.
The APC is not in the business of endorsing aspirants. As a progressive party, our ultimate guiding principle is strict adherence to the tenets of participatory democracy.
“Our members in Ondo State and elsewhere should ignore this unfounded report. As we move close to governorship primaries in both Edo and Ondo States, it should be expected that mischief-makers would do their worst to impugn on the process. As always, they would fail in this current campaign
“Our responsibility as the National Working Committee is to provide level playing ground for every eligible aspirant to contest for the ticket.
“The Party’s schedule of activities for the Edo and Ondo Governorship elections have been released. Our focus now is to ensure proper screening of aspirants, due diligence and conduct free, transparent and credible primaries to elect the Party’s candidates for both elections.
“Our members should continue to count on us to provide responsible leadership and act strictly by the rules at all times.”
Following are the party’s tweets:
Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to a group “Unity Mandate Agenda” alleging that the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has been “endorsed” for a second term by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
APC Nigeria✔@OfficialAPCNg · 13hReplying to @OfficialAPCNg
As we move close to governorship primaries in both Edo and Ondo States, it should be expected that mischief makers would do their worst to impugn on the process. As always, they would fail in this current campaign.
Our responsibility as the National Working Committee is to provide level playing ground for every eligible aspirant to contest for the ticket.
The Party’s schedule of activities for the Edo and Ondo Governorship elections have been released.
NaijaNews
