By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
As part of the fence-mending moves initiated by the All Progressives Congress(APC) to resolve the crisis that emanated from the conduct of the party’s primary elections, the Governor of Borno State, Kashim
Shettima and his counterpart from Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai will today(Monday) visit Ekiti State to mediate in the dispute causing disaffection within the party.
The governors and members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) peace and reconciliation committee were mandated to resolve the crisis that arose from the conduct of the State and National Assembly primary elections held in the state in October, 2018.
The primary election for the State and National Assembly seats were conducted in Ekiti State by a five-man committee headed Dr. Ibrahim Sule.
Most crisis-ridden was the Ekiti North senatorial district where some senatorial aspirants – Dr Olusegun Osinkolu, Mr. Kayode Otitoju and Cyril Fasuyi had expressed their anger over the emergence of Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi in the primary election they claimed did not hold.
Also in the same zone, former House of Representatives’ member, Hon. Bimbo Daramola , Mr. Bunmi Ogunleye and Mr. Femi Ajayi alleged that results were allegedly conducted to favour one Mr Peter Owolabi to emerge as the candidate for Ekiti North Federal constituency 1.
Also in Ekiti North constituency 2, Mr. Kolawole Akinlayo accused some party stalwarts of deploying their influences and contacts to impose
Mr. Ibrahim Olanrewaju as the party’s candidate against popular will.
The APC State Chairman, Paul Omotoso, confirmed to journalists in Ado Ekiti yesterday that committee would visit the state today.
He appealed to aggrieved aspirants to be peaceful and civil in their conducts to avert further crisis that could rip the party apart ahead of 2019.
Omotoso said the local chapter of the party had gone far in persuading some of the aggrieved aspirants to embrace peace, saying the National Committee would only consolidate on the gains already made through the efforts of the state working committee (SWC) to ensure that the aggrieved are brought on the same page with the party.
The APC chieftain added that all security outfits in the State would be contacted to provide adequate security, saying the committee members have nothing to fear.
