Ahead of the governorship election in Ondo State, the People’s Democratic Party may settle for a consensus governorship candidate in a bid to reduce the number of aspirants seeking to fly the party’s flag in the November election.
The leadership of the party arrived at this conclusion after a meeting with PDP aspirants at its secretariat, in Akure.
Speaking on the outcome of the meeting, the Publicity Secretary of the party, Kennedy Peretei, said, “If the consensus plan fails to materialise, the party will be left with no option but to organise a free, fair, and transparent primary.
“Rising from the meeting at the State Secretariat at Akure, on Monday, the aspirants expressed confidence in the party’s capacity to win the governorship election in the face of hunger and anger in the land orchestrated by the All Progressives Party.
“All the aspirants were in high spirits and gave a firm commitment to supporting whoever emerges as the flag bearer of the party.”
The aspirants who attended the interactive session included Sola Ebiseni, Agboola Ajayi, Bamidele Akingboye, Adeolu Akinwunmi, Bosun Arebuwa, and John Ola Mafo, amongst others.
Addressing newsmen, one of the aspirants, Ebiseni said, “As we have predicted, about two weeks ago, we stated that the PDP is set to produce the next governor of Ondo State.
“In realisation of that, all the aspirants, at least eight of us now, have been called together by leaders of our party, the former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the State Working Committee, the Chairman of the Elders’ Committee, and all the aspirants, including our representatives at the Ondo State House of Assembly, to engender a rancour-free primary.
“The first step that the leaders are selling to us as aspirants is to see the possibility of a consensus.
Also speaking, a former deputy governor of the state, Agboola Ajayi, said, “We will discuss and see how we can arrive at a consensus, but in the event, we are not able to achieve that, then we go straight to the party’s guidelines, and whoever emerges, all of us have agreed to work together.”
On his part, another aspirant, Akingboye, said, “For the first time, all the PDP aspirants in Ondo State have all agreed to come together to work as one, but we still have some that are trying to prove stubborn, but I believe with our leaders’ intervention, we will come together for us to work together.
“We are going to work on a consensus candidate, and that is what the party has agreed to.”
