29th April, 2024
The All Progressives Congress, APC will present a certificate of return to Governor Lucky Orimisan Ayiedatiwa on Monday as its candidate for the Ondo November 16 governorship election.
Aiyedatiwa had last week defeated 15 candidates in the primary election conducted by APC to determine the winner of the gubernatorial ticket in Ondo State.
According to The Nation, the certificate of return will be presented to Aiyedatiwa at 4 pm after the weekly meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja.
APC Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Chidi Duru confirmed that the presentation will be held today by 4 pm.
The Ondo State Governor was declared winner of the ticket amidst protests with at least three aspirants filing petitions to APC Appeal Committee over the primary conducted by Gov. Usman Ododo led 7-man committee
Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, the head of the five-member appeals committee, said that petitions were received from Mr Olugbenga Edema, Mr Jimi Odimayo and Mr Wale Akinterinwa.
Abubakar, a former governor of Bauchi state, said that the aspirants’ complaints were that the primary did not hold across the 203 wards in the state and the process was fraught with irregularities.
“So far, we have received three petitions; one from Olugbenga Edema, Jimmy Odimayo and the last one from Adewale Akinterinwa.
“The situation I met on ground was an inconclusive election that needed to be repeated in one local government.
“They were able to repeat election in that local government and by early this morning, they were able to declare the results of the primary.
“It is traditional in APC to set up a committee like this, in order to follow up on the fallout of the primary election.
“It’s as a result of this that I invited the gentlemen of the press to be here today, so that I can announce to them, the presence of this committee and the readiness of this committee to receive whatever complaints, as a fallout from the primary election,” the committee head said.
Abubakar said that the committee would be expecting more petitions from other aggrieved aspirants between Monday and Tuesday afternoon.
According to him, the secretary of the committee, Mr Obiocha Israel, will be available at the APC secretariat in Akure for two days to receive petitions.
“The committee will be here till on Tuesday to collect whatever complaints that may be.
“Let me use this opportunity to assure members of our party that this committee intends to be thorough and transparent in treating any complaint that we will receive.
“I can assure you that within a space of few days, we will consider total number of petitions we received and render a report to the national headquarters of our party, before the party takes a final decision on the issue of the primary.
“I am calling on all the aspirants that have complaint(s) to please, feel free to forward it to us. We have since established our office at the headquarters of the party,” he said.
However, the National Chairman of APC, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, had about three weeks ago appealed to the aggrieved aspirants to support Aiyedatiwa as the party’s candidate in the governorship poll.