Adebayo Adenrele
The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has taken a jab at a prominent gubernatorial aspirant of the party, Kayode Ojo and others, saying they can’t force themselves on the system of APC.
The Ekiti State APC Secretary, Garba Arogundade stated this over the weekend in Ado-Ekiti, as the party prepares for the gubernatorial primary election on October 27.
Speaking with journalists at the inauguration of a pro-democratic group of APC under the auspices of New Broom Movement, Arogundade noted that while the party and incumbency does not have the right to stop any aspirant from contesting the primary ahead of the 2026 gubernatorial election in the state, he explained that APC has put a structure in place which would determine the better candidate for the race.
NEWSTODAYNG recalls that Governor Biodun Oyebanji had threatened cabinet members and local government chairmen not to entertain Kayode Ojo and other aspirants, saying none of them have contributed to the growth and development of the party.
His words, “Primaries are an internal issue within the party. Whenever there is a struggle for power or space, these things will happen, it is not new.
“If you check 2013, or even the last primary, you will see the same thing. It is part of the democratic process. It’s a cycle. Every four years, it happens, but afterwards, we come together again.
“You cannot stop people from contesting; everybody has the right to do so. However, the party has its own system. We know the people who can fit into what we want to do. Sometimes we adopt a consensus arrangement, which doesn’t mean others cannot contest, it simply means the party has made its preference known.
“If anybody insists on going against that, it doesn’t change the decision of the party. Because at the end of the day, it is the party that conducts the election.
” So if we say we want Candidate A and Candidate B says “it must be me,” that won’t change the party’s system. There is a process in place and it is that process that guides us. You cannot force yourself on the system”.
