Ahead of the forthcoming local government election in Oyo State, Governor Abiola Ajimobi has started meeting major stakeholders with the All Progressives Congress, APC, insideoyo.com has learnt.
Yesterday, Ajimobi met with party chairmen, secretaries and elders advisory council ( 3 from each council) from local government areas in Ibadan.
Unknown to many, the primaries of the APC, earlier scheduled for yesterday was postponed on the order of the governor.
Sources told insideoyo.com that Ajimobi, who had to cut short his journey to Abuja, met the chairman of the party, Chief Akin Oke on Saturday night, a day after the party announced date for the primaries, expressing disappointment with the action. He was said to have asked Oke why he made the announcement without him knowing.
Jolted by the announcement of primaries, the governor’s loyalists- SENACO members, were said to have placed a call through to him to express the ‘danger’ in the conduct of primaries for their group. This was after, insideoyo.com learnt, they had ‘compiled’ list of their ‘preferred choices’, ready to be submitted to the governor on arrival from Abuja. They were said to have told him that they can only win few chairmanship slots if the primaries is conducted. The governor was said to have felt sad getting to know that his supporters were not strong in their various domains.
At yesterday’s meeting, Ajimobi was said to host the APC leaders from Ibadan that for the councillorship slots, they should adopt consensus. He asked them to nominate three aspirants from each council areas, out of which he will choose one each to fly the party flag in May 12, 2018 council poll.
This is coming 6 days after Ajimobi, at an empowerment programme organised by Sen. AbdulFatai Buhari in Iseyin, promised not to support imposition of candidates for the election.
Sources at the meeting said he told them that it became necessary because if primaries is conducted, those who recently joined may not be able to compete with old members of the party.
Insideoyo.com learnt that the governor, on Sunday meeting, told his loyalists that they should not present anybody with ‘stain’, noting that he would support core ‘SENACO’ persons as candidates for election.
In his reaction, the governor’s executive assistant on political matters, Dr. Morohunkola Thomas said: “the governor in conjunction with the state executives of the party has meeting with all the leaders and local government executives of the party in each local government to determine the modality for nominating chairmanship and councillorship candidates for the forthcoming local government elections.”
