Following the release of election Congress schedules and nominations fees for prospective aspirants on the platform of the ruling All Progressive Congress by its National leadership, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state has given an open invitation to all aspirants in the state for the election
The two days meeting is scheduled for the Agodi Government House, Ibadan.
The Governor is to meet the over 30 governorship aspirants on Saturday while the meeting with the aspirants for the Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly is scheduled for Sunday.
The Governor spoke at the Oyo Central Senatorial Meeting, which held at Durban Stadium, Oyo Town, Oyo.
The meeting according to the governor is to discuss and appease to the aspirants on the possibility of some aspirants stepping down to streamline the large number of aspirants.
The governor added that the effort will also hope to help aspirants avoid wasting money in the purchase of nomination forms but possible agree on a consensus candidate assuring that he will never impose any candidate on the people.
The national leadership of the party had recently released its schedule and timetable of activities stipulating Wednesday, 12th, September as the deadline for the collection and submission of nomination forms.
The party also fixed N850, 000 for the nomination forms for aspirants into the House of Assembly, N3.850million for House of Representatives aspirants, N7million for Senate aspirants and N22.5m for governorship aspirants.
Addressing the crowd at the stadium, the Governor said the meeting, which was well attended by political office aspirants from the governorship to the house of assembly, party leaders, senatorial leaders, state executive members and thousands of the party supporters is to show the strength of the party and intimate members of on goings in the party.
Before the new party schedule was released, the governor, had also expressed his desire to narrow down the large number of aspirants jostling to succeed him in the ruling APC in the state to four aspirants.
The governorship aspirants in APC in the state include, a legal luminary, Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN); a Senior Partner in KPMG Professional Services in Nigeria, Mr. Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe; former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Chief Adebayo Adelabu; Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Olalekan Alli; Commissioner for Health, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan; and former Head of Service, Mr. Soji Eniade.
The list also comprised Minister of Communication, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu; Commissioner for Land, Housing and Survey, Mr. Isaac Omodewu; a former governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala; Chairman Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Crime, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari; and a Director at Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited, Dr. Olusola Ayandele.
Others are a former Chief Press Secretary to Late Governor Lam Adeshina, Kehinde Olaosebikan, Prof Soji Adejumo, among others.
The governor said, “We are looking for somebody who will be godly, God-fearing, caring, will have vision, and will have courage to implement that vision. God will guide us.
“As I am talking to you today, I don’t have anybody in my mind. But I know within the next one week, somebody will come. I have already narrowed them down to four now because all of them are eminently qualified. Look at what we parade and compare them with what opposition is parading. We need quality and we have that quality in all the aspirants.
“I will meet with all the aspirants at a meeting on Saturday. The meeting we hope will help to streamline the contestants so that many of them won’t have to waste money in buying nomination forms.
“I think it will be bad to put N22.5million in a project that you are sure will not be successful. Besides, they cannot all be the governor at the same time and we hope we will be able to come up with something positive at the end of the meeting.”
Earlier, the Governor while paying a visit to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemo in his palace enjoined all monarchs and traditional rulers in the state to always support the government of the day for rapid socioeconomic development.
Governor Ajimobi while appreciating the first class monarch for his usual support for his administration enjoined monarchs across the state to always show the needed support to make government policies and programs impact on the populace.
Responding, the monarch commended the Governor for his giant strides and efforts at making the state better, praying that God will help the state with suitable successor that will continue the good work started by the governor.
(The Nation)
