• Edema kicks, says action negates party’s guidelines
• They’ve right to support anyone, says party
• Akinterinwa condemns thugs’ attack on billboards
• You erected inferior, weak posters, says LACO

With exactly one month before the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State ahead of the November 16 governorship election, a political storm is gathering with the move by some elders within the party to present a preferred aspirant.

The party elders, under the aegis of Ondo APC Aborigines, led by the former Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Togo, Sola Iji, disclosed, at the weekend, in Akure, the state capital, that the preferred aspirant would be unveiled tomorrow, March 26.

Some of the elders include Deputy Leader of the Ninth Senate, Prof. Ajayi Borrofice; party leader and former state Chairman of ACN, Jumoke Anifowose; Dr Taiwo Malumi; Tokunbo Ajasin; Bola Ilori and Omowumi Ohwovoriole, among others.

According to them, the nine-man committee set up to screen the aspirants had submitted its report, with three among the aspirants recommended.

However, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the APC, Gbenga Edema, has kicked against the decision of the elders to screen and present three top aspirants for endorsement ahead of the primaries.

Edema, who queried the move of the elders under the aegis of Ondo APC Aborigines, said that they lacked the right and authority to screen and endorse any of the aspirants without the backing of the party’s machinery.

He said that whatever the outcome of the committee, it would not be acceptable to him, stressing that most of those who claimed to be APC Aborigines were either in the Labour Party (LP) or People’s Democratic Party (PDP) before the formation of the APC in 2014.

But when contacted over the development, Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Alex Kalejaye, said: “They (APC Aborigines) don’t have to get permission from the party. They have the right to constitute themselves in a body and support anyone they feel will be okay for them.”

Meanwhile, another governorship aspirant on the platform of the APC, Wale Akinterinwa, has called on Aiyedatiwa to caution his supporters from destroying campaign billboards of his co-contestants in the state.

Akinterinwa, who decried the manner in which his campaign billboard was destroyed at the FUTA junction axis of Akure, the state capital, alleged that the thugs who defaced the billboard were backed in their audacious moves.

In a statement by the Spokesperson of the Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation (WACO), Segun Ajiboye, appealed to leaders of the party to call the governor to order over repeated attacks and destruction by his supporters.

However, the Lucky Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation Foot Soldiers (LACO-FS) described the allegation as ridiculous and baseless, stressing that Akinterinwa erected inferior and weak billboards, which it said, were destroyed by the rains.