Estranged APC aspirants urge Osinbajo to accommodate them

The 180 aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who obtained nomination forms for the House of Representatives and House of Assembly primaries in Ondo State have urged Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to re-accommodate them in the ruling party.

The group, last year, sued the party at the Federal High Court in Akure for failing to conduct primary elections for the 2018/2019 election year.

The crisis was almost consuming the party as leaders felt disenchanted with the non-conduct of the elections.

However, early this year, the national body set up a reconciliatory committee, which met with the aggrieved aspirants at the Governor’s office, and recommendations were made.

But the group, in a letter to the Vice President, signed by former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Kenneth Olawale, said till now, the recommendation had not seen the light of day.
The same situation was said to have been applicable to the reconciliation committee set up by the state leadership.

The letter reads: “Subsequently, a meeting was held in Akure, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, and attended by other national leaders of the party and the aggrieved aspirants, and it was agreed that the pre-election suit pending in the Federal High Court be withdrawn. The VP then urged the aggrieved aspirants to work for the party’s victory with a promise to compensate them. Consequently the case was withdrawn and the aggrieved aspirants worked for the party’s victory.

“We were expecting the vice president’s team to fulfil its part of the agreement, which included but not limited to compensations in lieu of costs incurred by these aspirants in the build-up to the primaries which were not allowed to hold.

“However, we were surprised that the party’s leadership has not deemed it fit to allow further communications between us since we fulfilled our own part of the agreement inspite of several letters we wrote to the appropriate authorities.”

The group pleaded with Osinbanjo and his team to take appropriate actions in the interest of the party, stressing that the same disruptive pattern was already playing out in Imo, Rivers, Osun and Zamfara States.

“We beg you to please honour the understanding, we sought from the aggrieved aspirants in Ondo State since the case in court is withdrawn, the presidency has the capacity to accommodate all 260 aggrieved APC aspirants from Ondo State.”