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There is confusion within the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Oyo State as the party failed to produce a candidate among its 13 governorship aspirants before INEC’s deadline for party primaries.
But as a temporary measure, the party has submitted the name of one Dr Dele Ajayi who is not among the leading aspirants.
The party, which is under the leadership of former governor Rashidi Ladoja, said it took the decision to enable the aspirants find an acceptable method of producing the candidate. It said Ajayi’s name will be substituted with the name of whoever emerges after the resolution of the logjam.
Leading governorship aspirants in the party are Sen. Olufemi Lanlehin, Dr Yunus Akintunde, Sharafadeen Alli, Aderemi Oseni and Dr Kola Balogun.
The party however succeeded in concluding its primaries for State and National Assembly candidates on Sunday.
READ: 2019: Oyo ADC disowns rumoured guber primary, says screening ongoing, primaries to be fixed soon
Oyo ADC is made of two broad groups. One is a group of Ladoja’s loyalists and the other is the Unity Forum, a break-away faction from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It was learnt that a written test was conducted for the aspirants at Premier Hotel, Ibadan last week to determine the best among them to fly the party’s flag in 2019. After it was rejected, the leaders mooted the idea of a consensus candidate but the aspirants rejected it too, with some suspecting that it was a ploy to impose Ladoja’s preferred candidate, whom many suspect to be Lanlehin.
Several meetings between the aspirants and the party leaders, as well as among the aspirants, failed to yield positive result. The fate of the party in the 2019 governorship election now hangs in the balance, with the political future of Ladoja and the aspirants greatly threatened.
Ladoja defected from the PDP to the ADC about three months ago to team up with a former chieftain of the APC, Chief Michael Koleoso and a former Secretary to the State Government, Chief Olakojo.