OYO ACN GUBER ASPIRANTS PROTEST AJIMOBI'S ALLEGED IMPOSITION

BY OLA AJAYI
HUNDREDS of aggrieved members and aspirants of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, weekend, staged a peaceful protest round major streets in Ibadan metropolis over alleged imposition of Senator Abiola Ajimobi and other candidates of the party.

The protest brought to three that the group  had organise in the last one week, vowing 'not leave the party for anybody because it belongs to all of us.'

Ajimobi was last week anounced the party's flagbearer for the April poll which other aspirants rejected.

Though, Ajimobi had earlier appealed to them to support the party for the realization of their goal, they went to the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, State Broadcasting Station and their party's state secretariat at Yemetu.

According to the protesters, since the choice of the candidates was not a popular decision, the party had not got its candidates for the election.

They claimed that though, they still respect the leaders of the party headed by Chief Bisi Akande, but insisted that there must be a review of the decision which they claimed was antithetical to democratic principles.

The governorship aspirants who gathered at the residence of Professor Wale Oyemakinde included Chief Olufemi Lanlehin, Dr. Adebayo Adewusi, Prof. Wole Akinboade and aspirants to the Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly.

While reading the stance of the angry aspirants to their  enraged supporters, they said the way it was carried out was highly insulting. All the four aspirants spoke one after the other with each saying the decision must be re-visited. While Lanlehin alluded to the Electoral Act 2010, saying since all of them(aspirants) did not agree to the choice of Ajimobi and that it negated the principles of consensus, Adewusi called on all the supporters not to desert them because they were fighting for them.

Akinboade and Oyemakinde said, up to now, none of the leaders sent any message to them to feel their pulses on the action.