The elders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), also known as Ondo APC Aborigines, have endorsed Lucky Aiyedatiwa, to be the candidate of the party.
They took the decision at their meeting in Akure, the state capital on Tuesday.
According to the elders, Aiyedatiwa scored the highest points out of the three aspirants shortlisted by the group.
The other two frontline aspirants picked are the late Paul Akintelure and a former Commissioner for Finance, Mr Wale Akinterinwa.
The elders said they had penned down Aiyedatiwa, Akintelure and Akinterinwa for screening and also for endorsement ahead of the party’s primary scheduled to take place on April 20, 2024.
The group had also warned the party against picking a ‘stranger’ as the candidate of the party at the primary.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting of the group on Tuesday, the chairman and former Ambassador to Togo, Sola Iji, said the group took the decision following the recommendations of the committee set up to assess all the governorship aspirants and pick the best out of them.
The group also insisted that the candidate must not be a stranger to the party members and must be a loyal party man who would respect and take care of the welfare of the members.
Iji said, “We resolved in our first meeting to commit ourselves to a unanimous goal in the forthcoming governorship primary of APC in the state. We consider this as a necessary step towards asserting our true worth in the party.
“Nevertheless, during our second meeting, we unanimously agreed to set up a nine-man committee headed by Mrs Christy Olufowose to identify the various aspirants jostling for the ticket of our party; assess them using some well-thought-out criteria and present three of them for further consideration by the leadership of the group.
“At our last meeting, the committee submitted their report wherein Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, Wale Akinterinwa and Dr Paul Akintelure were recommended.
“Furthermore, the group mandated its leadership to have further consultation and deliberations in arriving at the choice of our preferred aspirant. Consequently, the leadership of the group met, reviewed the report of the committee and considered the three recommended aspirants qualified and worthy.
“However, in contriving the choice of our preferred aspirant, the leaders believed that it is normal and conventional to offer a right of first refusal to His Excellency, Lucky Aiyedatiwa as a sitting governor.”
