STAKEHOLDERS in the Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have continued to express displeasure over last Saturday’s ward congress.
A group, the Crusaders; the lawmaker representing Idanre/Ifedore Federal constituency, Bamidele Baderinwa and some party leaders in Akure North Local Government Area faulted the manner the congress was conducted.
Baderinwa called for the cancellation of the exercise, saying it was manipulated by agents of the state government.
The Crusaders described the development as dictatorial.
A joint statement by leaders of the group – Victor Adelosoye, Mrs. Titilope Adegorusi, Chief Folorunsho and O. Awoduyilemi – hailed party members for frustrating the alleged attempts by some people to pocket APC.
The statement said: “We commend our members who stood as bastion of democracy and frustrated those planning to close the democratic space by claiming to have singularly purchased all the forms in the state.
“It has never been heard in the history of Nigeria, not even under the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha’s draconian era, that somebody would claim to have obtained all party congress forms for a state and declared party congress concluded before commencement.”
The group said its members followed the party’s guidelines, paid to designated banks and voted according to APC’s guidelines.
The Crusaders applauded party members in Ondo Federal Constituency for the successful conclusion of the ward congress across the 22 wards in the two local government areas.
Baderinwa called for outright cancellation of the ward congress due to alleged manipulation by agents of government.
The lawmaker accused the congress committee chairman, Komsol Longgap, of conniving with the leadership of the party to manipulate the congress.
He said: “I personally called Longgap and he promised to make the nomination forms available. But he eventually aligned with the party’s State Chairman, Ade Adetimehin, to disenfranchise card-carrying members of the party from performing their civic duties.
“The manipulation recorded across the 18 local government areas could spell doom for the fortune of the party ahead of the 2019 polls.”
The lawmaker said he would produce documentary evidences to prove the manipulations, adding that he would take lawful action against the perpetrators of the act in line with APC’s guidelines.
Baderinwa urged the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to conduct a fresh, transparent congress.
Also in Akure North, the Concerned APC Group, led by Bola Ojo-Olayinka, said there was no congress or ratification of a consensus list in the area, as earlier agreed on among the stakeholders.
According to him, the commissioner representing the local government in Oluwarotimi Akeredolu’s State Executive Council (Exco), Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye, submitted his personal list to the congress committee.
Ojo-Olayinka described the development as a rape of democracy, saying it might have adverse effect on the fortune of the party in the area during next year’s general elections.
But Adetimehin said the congress was the party’s internal affairs.
The chairman insisted that the exercise was peaceful across the state.
He said APC remained one family without sentiments.