Ogun APC youths challenge Oshiomole over imposition of candidates

Ogun State All Progressives Congress Youths, Friday, staged a protest demanding the recognition of their anointed candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, as its flag bearer of the gubernatorial elections.

This is coming few hours after a solidarity rally was held by 276 Councillors of the party, backing the candidature of Dapo Abiodun, on Thursday, at Iperu-Remo.

Akinlade, the anointed candidate of Governor Ibikunle Amosun was defeated in the state’s APC governorship primary.

Prior to the National Working Committee-backed primary, on October 2, the state chapter of the party declared Akinlade, the party exco consensus governorship candidate, as the winner of a primary election.

But the results were not signed by the chairman of the electoral committee and any of the agents of the five other gubernatorial aspirants.

Another election was conducted by the the National Working Committee (NWC) on October 3 throughout the 236 wards across the 20 Local Governments Area of Ogun State.

The chairman of the committee Ndabawa said Abiodun polled 102, 305 votes to emerge winner while Akinlade had 23, 443 votes. Other contestants included Jimi Lawal, who won 51, 153 votes, Abimbola Ashiru with 29, 764 votes, Senator Gbenga Kaka got 17,771 votes and Abayomi Hunye 9,110 votes.

The Muhammad Ndabawa-led electoral committee sent to Ogun State by the party during the primary on October 4 declared Dapo Abiodun winner of the direct governorship primary.

The declaration of Abiodun as the APC candidate led to controversies in the state chapter of the party. It resulted into the protest by the youths that walked from the Cultural Centre, Kuto, through to the Governor’s Office at Oke-Mosan bearing placards with inscriptions like “No to imposition, return our collective mandate to Akinlade”, “Don’t impose unpopular candidate on us”, “We want Akinlade and not Abiodun” among others.

The APC youth leader Yemi Amusa, said the youths are solidly behind Akinlade and would continue to resist any imposition by the leadership of the party until justice is done.

“We are here today so that history will be recorded that youths in the APC fold are protesting against the inaction of the National Working Committee and leadership of the party for denying us our mandate,” Amusa said.

“We are here to express our displeasure on the recognition of Abiodun as the party’s candidate. We will never agree with the decision of both the NWC and Oshiomhole. Abiodun can never and will never be our candidate. We will fight this injustice. This demonstration is just a tip of the iceberg,” he added.

Amusa, therefore, affirmed that the election that pronounced Akinlade as the winner of the October 2 governorship primaries conducted by the leadership of the party in the State was monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and relevant security agencies.