Former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State has pulled out of Sunday’s governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former governor in a statement made available to newsmen accused incumbent Governor Abiola Ajimobi of plotting to impose his anointed candidate, Joseph Tegbe on the party delegates.
He vowed not to be a party to what he dismissed as a charade while calling on his supporters to await further directives.
Ajimobi is alleged to have threatened to remove any of the elected local government chairman in the 33 councils who failed to deliver his council to Mr Tegbe.
Others in the race for the primary to hold today are Project Director and Director at Integrated Energy Distribution And Marketing Limited, Dr Olusola Ayandele, legal luminary, Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), former Commissioner for Health, Dr Owolabi Babalola, Commissioner for Health, Dr Azeez Adeduntan and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Adebayo Adelabu.
It was revealed that at a meeting the governors held with the aspirants on Friday at the Government House in Agodi, he pleaded with them in his private discussions with individual aspirants to withdraw from the race and allow his anointed aspirant an easy ride as a consensus candidate.
A party source privy to the meeting said the governor’s new stance ran contrary to his earlier agreement with some of the aspirants to make it a three-horse race.
The initial plan was to prune the aspirants for the Oyo APC governorship ticket to three: Tegbe, Akintola and Adelabu.
It was further revealed that Ajimobi held a meeting with party chairmen at the local councils to give them a directive that their delegates must do his bidding on Tegbe.
