The governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, has said that he would in conjunction with some leaders of Alł Progressives Congress, APC, meet with aspirants of the party on Saturday to pick consensus governorship and other elective candidates.
He made the disclosure on Wednesday during the APC Oyo Central Senatorial District stakeholders meeting held at Durbar Stadium in Oyo.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the senatorial district comprises 11 local governments.
Among them are Afijio, Atiba, Akinyele, Egbeda, Lagelu, Oluyole, Oyo East, Oyo West, Ogo-Oluwa, Ona-Ara and Surulere.
“We are going to meet with all the aspirants at the Government House in Ibadan on Saturday by 12 noon, while we will meet with aspiring lawmakers on Sunday at the same venue and time,” he said.
Mr Ajimobi said the essence of the meeting, particularly those aspiring to be governor was to appeal to some of them to possibly step down and avoid waste of resources.
He stated that it would be wrong to encourage governorship aspirants to waste 22.5 million naira on nomination forms without emerging as the candidate.
“Monday is the last day to obtain the governorship nomination form. We don’t want all our aspirants to collect the form and waste their resources when we can talk to them.
“All of them are qualified, with intimidating profiles, but only one of them will emerge. We can still ensure everyone is engaged in one area or the other for them to partake,” he said.
The governor assured members of the public that APC remained the party to beat, adding none of the other parties was enjoying the unity and cohesion that exists in party.
Earlier at the Alaafin’s palace, the governor described Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi as an epitome of wisdom, integrity and intellect.
He said the monarch has never relented in supporting his administration and offering solution to problems affecting the state, praying the monarch live long.
The governor urged other monarchs and traditional rulers to always contribute to good governance and development of the state.
Mr Adeyemi in his remarks, prayed that God continue to protect the governor and increase him in wisdom.
The monarch stated that the state enjoys relative peace and prayed the governor handover to a worthy successor.
“We are not politicians but we shall support you any day and anytime. This is because you have done wonderfully well in the history of the state,” he said.
NAN
