CRISIS ROCKS EKITI ACN OVER IMPOSITION OF CHAIRMANSHIP CANDIDATE

Members of the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, yesterday stormed the party's state secretariat in Ado-Ekiti, to protest the imposition of a former House of Assembly member, Hon Rotimi  Ajidara as the chairmanship candidate of the party.

The party members who came from Omuo-Ekiti in Ekiti East Local Government Area of Ekiti State, with placards lodged their complaints with the Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi  and the ACN chairman in the state, Chief Jide Awe their grievances.

They pointed out that the party stands to lose out in the January 21,2012 local government election if it fails to adopt Kayode Idiowo as the chairmanship candidate.

Idiowo, on his own threatened to challenge the party's decision in court if it fails to respect the zoning formula in Omuo-Ekiti and the mandate given to him as the Vice Chairmanship candidate in 2008 with Hon Wale Akinlabi to contest the chairmanship election in the botched 2008 local government election.

The spokesman of the group, Mr. Femi Jegede, who is the Secretary of Ward 8 alleged Ajidara of conniving with the Commissioner for Housing and Environment, Mr Wole Adewumi  of using the names of the governor, Awe and the chief of staff to the governor, Mr. Yemi Adaramodu to intimidate his main  opponent, Idiowo.

Jegede emphasized the need for the party to pick somebody from ward eight or six in Omuo-Ekiti , which have not produced the chairman in the past for it to have a landslide victory over the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

According to him, the PDP  had already respected the zoning formula by picking somebody from ward 8 and this might let the party have edge over the ACN in the next election if that imbalance was not addressed.

The party's ward scribe advised Ajidara and the party leaders not to see the chairmanship slot as a compensation for the loss the former Assembly member suffered to Bamidele Faparusi in the House of Representatives primary election prior to 2011 election.

His words: 'I am from ward 8, while Ajidara is from ward 9 that had produced chairman in the past. As I am talking to you, the Omuo Ekiti is pregnant with revolutionary annoyance and we will not allow them to deliver because it will not augur well for the town and our party.

'As a loyal party man, I cannot challenge the supremacy of  the party or work against its interest, but the party must be seen to be fair, just and maintain equity in this issue'

Predicating his assertion on the Supreme Court ruling on the case of Governor Rotimi  Amechi Versus Celestine Omehia, Idiowo demanded that the party must respect the zoning formula in Omuo-Ekiti and the party's mandate he jointly owned with Hon Chief Wale Akinlabi, which he said still subsists.

The embittered politician hinted that Akinlabi had relinquished the mandate to him as the vice chairmanship candidate in the primary conducted in 2008, where the party had abstained from the local government election conducted by the ousted Governor Segun Oni due to shoddy composition of the State electoral body.

He then advised the party to learn from the loss it suffered in the House of Assembly in Ekiti East Constituency 2, when Hon Dele Ajibola defeated the incumbent caretaker chairman, Miss Anthonia Omonusi due to imposition.