Group urges Ondo APC guber aspirants to support Akeredolu

A group, the Ondo Concerned Professionals, on Thursday, called on all aspirants who lost to the winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in the state, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), to come together and rally support for his victory at the November 26 election.
In a statement by the Secretary of the group, Francis Olagbuji, it noted the circumstances surrounding the election and urged the aspirants to see the emergence of Akeredolu as an act of God for a “definite purpose”.
According to the statement, the intervention of the national leadership which after a careful evaluation of the electoral process and the final resolution to make the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) its governorship candidate in Ondo State was done in good faith and should therefore be accepted by all.
“It has been a heated primary but in the interest of peace and greater interest of the party, we are convinced that the national leadership of the APC took the right decision by affirming the election of Chief Rotimi Akeredolu as its candidate in Ondo State. The expectation, therefore, is for all the aspirants who lost to him to rise up in unison and rally support for his total victory at the polls”, the group stated.
Olagbuji, who also urged Akeredolu to be magnanimous in victory, said that no one of the aspirants could be said to have lost in “real terms”, stating that the victory was for the party and not an individual thing.
He observed that the coming together of all the other aspirants to support the winner was in the best interest of the party as he pointed out that the next election was an opportune time to defeat the ruling PDP in the state.
“APC’s victory will change the fortunes of not only the party but also that of the toiling masses that had long been forgotten by the PDP government in the state. So reason should prevail for the greater good of all. The strategic interest of the APC must be uppermost in the minds of those who truly love the party”, he stated.
He warned against any divisive action by anyone that could jeopardize the chances of APC in the state, noting that the more, the merrier.
“Now, the party has a great opportunity to defeat the PDP but this is to the extent that it is a collective effort which then requires that all hands must be on deck. We could see some frayed nerves as fallout of the keenly contested primary election but as it is in a democracy, there can only be one winner in a political contest. So having won and duly decided so by the national leadership of the APC, the normal thing to do is to come together and support Akeredolu to win the election. This is our candid submission and believed by many partyfaithful as representing the strategic interest of the APC, its leaders and members as a whole”.