BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
Some members of the All Progressives Congress in Abeokuta South Local Government of Ogun State stormed the party’s secretariat to stage a peaceful protest the exclusion of their names from the delegate list ahead of the party’s primary elections.
The protesters on Tuesday, carried placards with different inscriptions to express their displeasure at their being sidelined on the delegates’ list by the party executive led by the local government chairman, Henry Fagbenro.
Some of the inscriptions read, “We reject imposition of delegates, we opt for an open congress,” “Say no to imposition of delegates,” and “Dialogue is a language in politics.”
Describing their exclusion as a plot to allegedly give some aspirants a soft landing in the primaries, one of the aggrieved members of the party, Sharafadeen Ogunwolu urged the state executive of the APC to wade into “the removal of members of the party the delegate list in Ward 5, 8 and 15 ahead of the primaries to produce legislative candidates of the party.”
Speaking on behalf of the aggrieved party members, Ogunwolu called for dialogue, saying “if there is no dialogue, there is no primary election with the substituted members of the party by Fagbenro and his executive.”
Fagbenro however denied substituting members’ names on the list of delegates, saying the allegations lack merits.
He explained that Governor Dapo Abiodun, through the state party Chairman, Yemi Sanusi, directed that leaders of the 16 wards to be allowed to select five delegates from each ward for onward submission to the party secretariat.
He therefore urged all aggrieved party members to embrace peace and dialogue, adding that, “if these people want to fight, then they should face their ward leaders who nominated five names of members to make the delegate list.”
