One of the governorship aspirants in Ondo All Progressives Congress (APC) who lost to governor Rotimi Akeredolu at the just concluded primary election, Chief Olayide Owolabi Adelami, has accepted his defeat.
Adelami, however called on the party to embark on serious reconciliation for the party to emerge victorious at the general election.
Speaking with newsmen at the national secretariat of APC after meeting with the Appeal Committee behind closed door, Adelami also denied the allegation that his group fermented trouble during the primary election.
“We also said that we should make our grievances known to the appeal committee for them to hear us out. I have just met the appeal committee and I bore my mind to the committee on exactly what happened on the field that the result may not necessary the through representation of our strength in our political field but because we believe in our party, APC, and we believe that come Oct. 10 we will retain the seat of governance in Ondo state. Because of this love for our party, we said whatever it is that is wrong with the process we should look away and move forward and support the party so that it will record a success in the next election.
“My candidacy, I’m from Owo, the same town with the governor. Probably you may have been hearing one thing or the other about violence. We were not the cause of violence. Despite that we have congratulated the governor in a way that we have expressed our intension to work for APC we are not going to any party.
“My boys are not known for violence and therefore those who are causing violence should be called to make sure that the peace is restored in Owo so that our party APC will record success. Because winning a ticket for APC is not an earned itself it is a means to an earn because we still have a larger contest which is against the other party. So, we need to come together and make sure that APC records success.
“The governor should be the one to bring everybody together. Democracy is a game of number nobody should be excluded. The reconciliation of all party members that participated in the contest must be total.
“They must bring everybody together because the way it is now only a few number of the contestants have been reconciled with him. The governor had meetings with them and excluded others. I’m saying that all other contestants should be brought on board so that the reconciliation would be total. We are not fighting war it is just a contest and everyone of us that came out to contest we have a constitutional rights to contest. Therefore, since the result of the Primary went on that way then we have put everything behind us. The executive governor the onus is on him to bring all members of the party together in the interest of the party.”
Ondo: Adelami accepts defeat, urges geniue reconciliation in APC
