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•APC rakes in over N3.5b from sales of forms
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Unless the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) promptly takes proactive measures to avert an impending clash, there are clear indicators that blood may flow like water at its national headquarters at Blantyre Street, Wise II, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, tomorrow, Monday.
Investigations by the Sunday Sun in Abuja revealed that the looming bloody clash is not unconnected with the declaration of war by the supporters of the two major contenders for the party’s ticket for the Osun State off-cycle governorship election primary storming the national secretariat to beat the Monday deadline date for the return and submission of their completed expression of interest and nomination forms.
Curiously, temper and tension had continued to heighten since the beginning of the build-up of the activities for the Osun governorship poll scheduled for next year, with gladiators like the former National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore and the former Managing Director of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, who are at the fierce epicentre of the battle, picked their nomination forms for the party’s primary.
Our correspondent, who monitored the turbo-charged situation at the secretariat during the week, reported that the plan by both camps to mobilise hundreds of supporters to the secretariat has not only complicated the situation but also made it more precarious.
The rising tension over the imminent clash was as a result of the failure of the intervention measures by the leaders of the party in the state to produce a candidate through dialogue for a consensus mode of primary replica to the one adopted during the Ekiti State governorship primary.
A visibly angry member of one of the warring camps, who frowned at the manner the national leadership of the party is handling the situation, confirmed the impending clash in a chat with our correspondent in confidence.
“It’s unfortunate that the Omisore camp is bent on clashing with Oyebamiji on Monday when both will return their completed nomination forms. Both camps are already mobilising thugs in their hundreds to destabilise each other.
“I can also tell you that the national leadership, the NWC, is not also helping matters by not scheduling time for the gladiators to return their completed forms separately. Yes, we have up to eight aspirants that purchased nomination forms for the Osun poll, but everyone knows that Oyebamji and Omisore are the two strongest contenders among the others.
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“What we expect is for the national leadership to put measures in place to avert the impending clash because we, the supporters of Oyebamji, will not fold our hands and just continue to watch the Omisore supporters intimidate us.
“We heard that they are bringing hundreds of thugs as supporters to the secretariat on Monday, we have also started mobilising our own supporters to storm the secretariat but the problem is that the party did not allocate time to the aspirants returning their forms, which I think would have resolved the impending clash.
“What would have been ideal would have been for the party’s leadership to inform the aspirants to come at different allotted time, but it seems they are pretending to be unaware of the tension mounting in the air and or the best way to avert it. Our principal is a peace-loving and quiet person who doesn’t require this kind of distraction,” the source loyal to Oyebamji told our correspondent on condition of anonymity.
Equally, another supporter at the party’s secretariat who also spoke to Sunday Sun lamented the collapse of various peace deals initiated and instituted to trim and streamline the numbers of the aspirants to a manageable number, blaming it on the stiff-necked posture of the Senator Omisore camp.
Interestingly, the muteness of the national leadership of the party to the threatening issue due to the crack in the ranks of the state party’s leaders seems to have complicated the situation.
Efforts by our correspondent to draw the attention of the party’s leadership to the needy for a measure to remedy the already precarious situation, yielded little or no positive results as they either declined comments or simply quipped that none of the gladiators had officially notified the relevant department about the development.
Querying why all the aspirants that bought the nomination forms decided to wait until the submission deadline date, one of the NWC members however assured that the situation will be brought under control.
Meanwhile, the ruling party has raked in a whopping sum of over N3.5 billion as the total amount for the sale of nomination forms to the eight aspirants for the party’s governorship election ticket.
While seven aspirants spent N50 million each to purchase the forms, only one female, granted nomination fee waiver, paid far less to buy the form, which brought the amount close to N4 billion.
