A member of the Ondo chapter of the All Progressives Congress’ registration committee, Bola Ilori, on Saturday told Channels Television that the imposition of committee members was the root of the crisis rocking the state.
Speaking on Sunrise, he said that the trouble was being caused by external bodies who do not understand the internal workings of the state politics. “People that do not understand the history of the state, by the time they are at the driving seat of events, you will always have trouble. “
“This is a new party coming together, let the legacy parties be at the driving seat of events.”
A member of APC, Chairman of the Defunt CPC (Ondo state chapter), Olalekan Obolo, who was speaking on the duplication of positions, said the crisis is not about either one of the Chairmen but about the “propriety of the event that took place on the day when the inauguration of the state harmonization committee was going to be carried out.”
“It is clear by international standards that anyone who wants to lead a people must first of all seek the acquiescence of the majority
“We had a committee of 31 members and on the day of inauguration, 19 of us decided to stay away because we had issues with the composition of the committee and the process that led to its emergence.”
According to both Ilori and Obolo, the issues rocking the chapter are because members of the defunct CPC and ANPP are not well represented in the committee.
Asides from the statutory members including governorship candidates, chairmen and secretaries of the defunct parties, a total number of 9 persons are expected to be nominated into the committee.
The politicians stated that each part should have been given 3 slots each of the 9 slots available however, CPC and ANPP ended up with one each. The representatives were also handpicked without the knowledge of the members of the other parties.
According to Ilori, “Otunba Adebayo came up with a unilateral list without recourse to the defunct party secretariat.”
Responding to their arguments, the Interim Publicity Secretary of APC in Ondo state, Rotimi Fashakin said “the issue of merger is not for state chapters of the legacy party to decide. It was for the national body to decide.”
Although the other two guests questioned Fashakin’s involvement in the whole process, the Publicity secretary defended his position, saying that “the fact on ground is … I was the national publicity secretary of CPC… by the guidelines of APC, I am a statutory member of the harmonization committee.”
Mr Ilori further argued that an agreement had been reached at a party meeting which held in Lagos but was later disobeyed. “It was agreed that the three former chairmen of the legacy parties should be joined by 3 members from the senatorial districts to lead the party in the state and oversee the mobilization exercise.
He however blamed individuals who are not familiar with the local terrain of interrupting local politics.
