The candidate recommended by the 12 aggrieved gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, in Oyo State, Dr Nureni Adeniran, couldn’t raise money to purchase the party’s nomination forms.
He has been screened out by the national working committee of the party. Instead, the party affirmed Sen. Olufemi Lanlehin as its candidate in the 2019 election in the state.
OYO INSIGHT had reported how the party asked the aggrieved aspirants to present one of them to slug it out with Lanlehin whose nomination they had opposed. The aspirants had gone to court to tackle Lanlehin’s nomination. They later said that the only option to withdraw the case from court was to allow them choose one of them as the party’s candidate.
The party, this newspaper recalled, sold its form for N6.5 million. Each aspirants raised a draft in respect of the amount.
The announcement of Lanlehin by the party’s national chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu, at a press conference after the party’s NWC meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, laid to rest speculations in the media about the authenticity of Lanlehin’s candidacy.
According to Nwosu, “In line with our earlier press statement on the issue of ADC’s gubernatorial candidate in Oyo State, the National Working Committee wishes to announce that Senator Olufemi Lanlehin remains the gubernatorial candidate of ADC in Oyo State. We have had to revisit the issue to ensure that we accommodate all concerns from various quarters. We have had meetings with all the stakeholders of our dear party, including aspirants at all levels of elective positions.
“This was meant to ensure that the choice of Senator Lanlehin satisfied the aspirations of all party leaders, members and stakeholders of our great party, including a broad spectrum of the good people of Oyo State. Following the deliberations and consultations, the party’s decision on Senator Lanlehin has been ascertained to be the best for ADC and especially the good people of Oyo State. All the polls taken so far have pointed to the fact that Lanlehin is the Oyo State Governor in waiting.”
He added, “However, in view of the controversy generated by 12 governorship aspirants of the party in Oyo State, and their request to make an input in choosing a consensus candidate, we gave them the chance to make a recommendation and they recommended Dr. Nureni Adeniran, who the Screening and Primary Committee had screened out because of his failure to meet financial obligations (Expression of Interest and nomination form), lack of constituency support and inability to prove adequate financial capacity to fund the governorship campaign/election. This calls into question the motive behind the agitation of the 12 aspirants.”
While assuring ADC members and stakeholders that the party is well positioned to take over the Government House in Oyo State come 2019, the National Chairman warned, “We will not condone acts intended to destabilize the impressive progress already made by ADC in Oyo State. Every member of the party has been assured that their yearning for a candidate of the people has been satisfied in the choice of Olufemi Lanlehin. We urge everyone, particularly the media, to disregard further press statements, not issued by the National Working Committee on the issue of a governorship candidate for ADC in Oyo State.”
Signed:
Yemi Kolapo (Mrs)
National Publicity Secretary,
African Democratic Congress
