18th July, 2020
One of the 12 governorship aspirants in Ondo APC, Chief Olusola Oke, has vowed to take the party to court, over the adoption of indirect primary to pick the candidate.
Oke who arrived late for a reconciliation meeting apologised. He claimed he did not get the notice on time.
Oke minced no words about his plan to take the party to court.
He told the reconciliation committee, led by Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger that they came to waste their time, if they failed to endorse direct primary.
He promised that he would not boycott the primary election on Monday, so that he could have locus standi to challenge it.
“I don’t boycott any election. It is not in my character and is not advisable.
“Under the electoral law if you boycott or you don’t participate, you cannot challenge,” he said
Governor Bello, who heads All Progressives Congress (APC), Reconciliation Committee, had met with the party’s governorship aspirants with a view to reconciling their differences ahead of July 20 primary election.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the meeting, Bello said the main objective of the committee in the state was to reconcile party members and all APC faithful.
According to him, the reason we are here is for the reconciliation in Ondo State.
“We have met with the aspirants.
“Our paramount objective is to ensure victory in the forthcoming election.
” We have met with the stakeholders on what we should do to have peace in the party.
” We members of the committee would do everything we can to reconcile all members of the party to resolve any crisis.
“Success of the APC is what we must seek. We should not take action that will make us lose the election,” the committee chairman said.
Speaking on agitation for direct primary, Bello explained that ‘the committee would recommend whatever the members wanted
“If direct primary is what the stakeholders want, we will recommend to the national headquarters,” he said.
The only six aspirants that attended the meeting were: Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, Mr Ifeoluwa Oyedele, Mr Bukola Adetula, Ambassador Sola Iji, Mrs Jumoke Anifowose and Mr Jimi Odimayo.
Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi, who is the Chairman of Election Committee for Ondo State, had on Friday in Abuja said that the Monday primary would be conducted through indirect mode.