Only one out of the 12 National Assembly candidates of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Ondo State was present at the inauguration of the party’s campaign council for the 2027 elections held on Saturday in Akure.
The campaign council was inaugurated by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa at the International Culture and Event Centre, The Dome, Akure.
Except for Chief D.I. Kekemeke, the APC Candidate for Ondo South Senatorial, that attended the event, other two candidates for Ondo Central and Ondo North, who are also serving Senators were absent.
Similarly, all the nine House of Representatives candidates of the party from the state were copiously absent during the inauguration of the campaign council.
Voice Air Media reports that no reason was given for the absent of the 11 candidates from the inauguration of the campaign council for their elections on January 16, 2027.
The event was attended mainly by members of the State Executive Council, members of the State Working Council of the party, Senior Special Assistants, Special Assistants, party chieftains, some members of the Ondo State House of Assembly, and other political appointees of the governor.
Speaking at the event, Aiyedatiwa charged members of the party to unite and mobilise support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
The governor who is the chairman of the campaign council, described the inauguration as a strategic step towards the general election.
He said unity and coalition-building, which brought the APC to power in 2015, remain crucial to its electoral success, warning that the party’s status as Nigeria’s and Africa’s largest political party would not guarantee victory without internal cohesion.
The governor said the elections would involve those of President, senators, members of the House of Representatives, and members of state Houses of Assembly.
Aiyedatiwa said: “It’s only when we retain power, that is when your own individual interests and your community interests can be met. All of us must work together to achieve total victory.”
He urged the campaign council to base its appeal on the achievements of the Tinubu administration and his government in Ondo State.
“The President has made the job easy for us by those reforms. There is no government that has done what Asiwaju has done in the history of presidential ruling in Nigeria,” he said.
He charged council and committee members to take the campaign to every part of Ondo State, mobilise voters and explain the Tinubu administration’s achievements ahead of the 2027 general election.