Ahead of the 2023 general election, some stakeholders in the Oke-Ero local government area of Kwara state who are members of the ruling APC, have expressed the need for the state APC leader, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq and party officials at the state and local government levels to ensure that matters concerning party nominations are examined carefully and given a second look.
Doing this, they noted, will stand the party in good stead in the upcoming general election especially, the state house of assembly election and the gubernatorial election that will hold on the same day.
The party stakeholders including young people submitted that the 2023 general election stands as an opportunity to prove that the constituency belongs to the ruling party hence the need to avoid anything that will make the Oke-Ero state constituency APC get exposed to avoidable risk.
The stakeholders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said being true party men, they will readily support anyone so nominated by the APC but added that it is important that the party takes full advantage of the opportunity by presenting a candidate that will help in endearing the party to the electors.
“We all know that membership of the state house of assembly is done on a rotating basis in Oke-Ero local government and to the credit of the leadership of the party, the zone that ought to produce the candidate was allowed to do so and this was quite commendable.
“However, we were all aware that the purported House of Assembly primary election was just a formality and the leaders still have the opportunity to rectify the situation.
“The current representative of Oke-Ero state constituency, Hon Raphael Adetiba was born on 17 January 1976, why will you support the emergence of Hon Bamigboye Joseph Olajire, who is in his 60s, as his replacement when he has a co-aspirant; Agboola Ayobami Isaac, who was born in 1986?
“It is a known fact that having experience in party politics has become one of the things that are considered before choosing a candidate, Bamigboye recently retired from the Central Bank of Nigeria and over the years he had been known to be apolitical while Agboola had joined politics in year 2000. That was not all, himself and his wife, Mrs. Oluwakemi Agboola had also at different times served as Ward exco members. Agboola, a former banker, has a BSC degree in Statistics, so he has gotten the needed experience and he is also a young man’ a party leader in the constituency said.
“You know PDP had always competed with our party over the control of Oke-Ero and there was even a tie vote in the constituency during the last presidential election despite the effect of the Otoge movement. APC had 4,000 votes while PDP also had 4,000 votes.
“We therefore need to take every needed step to ensure that we show them that our constituency actually belongs to the ruling APC.
That is why we are worried and we have begun to get in touch with people who can get things right one of the stakeholders also added.
