By Ola Ajayi

Ibadan—AGGRIEVED chairmanship and councillorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 15 local government areas of Oyo State have petitioned the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun over alleged unconstitutional way of hand picking candidates for the positions by the state leadership of the party after screening all the aspirants.

The aspirants, in a petition signed by Ademola Adesina, said the method about to be adopted for the February 11 poll by the party after all aspirants had been duly screened could spell doom for the party.

They said; “We have been reliably informed that APC, Oyo State Chapter has set the machinery in motion towards picking 10 members from each ward who will then nominate candidates for chairmanship and councillorship elections.”

Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC)

This, they said, was a  contravention of the provisions of Article 20(i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) of All Progressives Congress Constitution 2014 as amended.

“We are worried that if this unprecedented trend is allowed to continue unchecked or if the state executive committee of the party is allowed to continue to use wanton subterfuge to emasculate the will of the teeming members of the APC in Oyo State, it will ultimately lead to mass defection of party faithful to opposition parties and the imminent defeat of the handpicked candidates in the forthcoming local government chairmanship and councillorship elections”, they warned.

While threatening legal action, they noted that APC as a political party is known to be a progressive and democratic party and should live up to that tenets of allowing internal democracy to thrive.

Reacting to the allegations, the Director of Publicity of the party, Mr. Wale Shadare said even though, the chairman of the party was not privy to the petition, he assured that the party would not do anything to erode the confidence that people have in the party