Ogun APC faction declares Akinlade guber candidate

• Another holds parallel primary conducted by NWC
• FCT supporters protest, allege imposition of candidates

A faction within the Ogun State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared Kunle Akinlade as the party’s governorship candidate for the 2019 general election.The party chairman, Chief Derin Adebiyi, who spoke at a press conference yesterday at the party’s secretariat in Abeokuta, said Akinlade, who is a preferred candidate of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, polled 190,987 votes to defeat the other five aspirants through direct primary.

According to the results, Jimi Lawal polled 5,046 votes while Dapo Abiodun (3,648). The rest were former commissioner, Bimbo Ashiru who polled 898 votes, former Deputy Governor Adegbenga Kaka (833 votes) and Hunye Abayomi (208 votes).Adebiyi, who stated that the election was conducted by a locally-constituted committee and supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and all the relevant security agencies, said the electoral committee constituted by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) was not involved in the conduct of the election.

“They told us the election would hold on Sunday and we waited for them but they did not turn up.“They later told us it would hold on Tuesday but up till now, they are no where to be found. They have highly, highly compromised,” he alleged.Besides, he alleged that the NWC said it planned to conduct the primary through ballot papers whereas direct primary can only be conducted through Option A4, which does not need ballot papers.

Meanwhile, as at the time of filling in this report, the other faction was also holding its direct primary election being supervised by the party’s NWC. Adebiyi insisted that going by the party’s guidelines, they had done nothing wrong as far as the conduct of the election is concerned.

Also, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Taiwo Adeoluwa in a broadcast on Tuesday, alleged that the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, was working to impose a particular candidate as the party’s flagbearer. In another development, party supporters of the APC in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday staged a protest accusing Oshiomhole of imposing candidates on them.

The protesters, who barricaded the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, alleged that the sudden change of mind by Oshiomhole-led NWC was aimed at achieving the goal in the rescheduled senatorial and House of Representatives primaries in the FCT.They eventually left the secretariat after the FCT Commissioner of Police, CP Bala Ciroma, waded in to calm down their frayed nerves.