Chinelo Obogo,
Some governorship aspirants on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) are mounting pressure on the Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, to urge the national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, to intervene in the lingering crisis rocking the party.
It was gathered that the aspirants under the aegis of the Unity Forum are reportedly worried about Tinubu’s neutrality in the run up to the governorship primary of the party slated for the July. The Forum, led by former deputy governor, Ali Olanusi, were opposed to the second term ambition of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu. There are a no fewer than eight governorship aspirants seeking the party’s ticket and an arrangement put together few months ago to arrive at a consensus candidate among the various aspirants appeared to have hit the rock.
But one of the frontline aspirants who spoke to reporters over the weekend, blamed the “attitude of indifference’’ put up by Tinubu for the crisis that has rocked the Unity Forum.
“From the beginning, the idea of the forum was not just without some external leadership and encouragement. But as events unfolded, we observed that those leaders who encouraged us at the beginning began to withdraw support. We thought at the initial stage that we were going to get the backing of those who encouraged us but here we are, almost stranded and seen as enemies of the governor. We have no regret at all, but our concern is that events leading to the primary are not encouraging to us at all and we must move on with our plans to change the leadership of the state still on same party platform.”