A prominent political figure and governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao, has urged APC leaders in Oyo State to allow all aspirants who have obtained the party’s nomination forms for the governorship to choose among themselves a consensus candidate if that is what the leadership wants.
Alao stated this while featuring on Lagelu FM’s programme Okodoro Oro in Ibadan.
According to him, it is not that the aspirants are afraid of the much-talked-about consensus arrangements, but they only want the leadership of the party in the state to allow those among the aspirants who have obtained the nomination forms to choose a consensus candidate in a transparent manner and not through imposition.
“I’m quite aware of what the Electoral Law states. It is either we settle for consensus or go for direct primary. If our leaders don’t want us to go for direct primary, they should allow those of us that have obtained the nomination forms to choose among ourselves a consensus governorship candidate in a transparent manner. If they don’t want that, then they should allow us to go for primary.”
Speaking on the endorsement of one aspirant or the other, Alao stated that the President has not spoken to that effect.
“Have you personally heard that President Bola Tinubu has spoken about his choice of a particular aspirant? All they are saying is that the President said this, the President said that. We need to be very careful so that this will not destabilise our party and affect us just like the previous elections.”
Alao, who expressed optimism that he would clinch the party’s governorship ticket, said that he is prepared to take Oyo State to the next level of development in all aspects of governance.