A total of 18 governorship aspirants in Plateau State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress on Monday accused Governor Simon Lalong of trying to impose his preferred candidate on the party to fly the APC ticket for the 2023 governorship of the state.
The aspirants, under the auspices of Plateau APC Governorship Aspirants Forum, who addressed a press conference in Jos on Monday, threatened to dump the APC should the state governor have his way.
Chairman of the aspirants’ forum, Amos Gizo, insisted that they will come up with a consensus governorship candidate from among themselves for APC on the Plateau before the primaries.
Gizo said, “This press conference is necessitated by what looked like a rumour but has been evident by the body language of the state governor, Simon Lalong, with members of the first family to subjugate the collective will of members of the APC by imposing a candidate on members of the party in the person of Dr. Nentawe Goshen which is unacceptable to all of us.
“We all believe this act of subverting democracy has the express approval of the governor just to deny the people’s choice and foist an unpopular candidate that will cause misfortune to the party as their preferred candidate.”
Gizo noted that during their maiden meeting, the aspirants resolved not to accept any governorship candidate whose emergence is a product of imposition .
He added, “There should be no impositions of any kind and consensus will be done by the aspirants themselves.
“We all agreed that any aspirant that becomes the consensus candidate will be supported by all.
“We all agreed that whoever emerges will have the blueprint of other aspirants to be embedded into his manifestos and programmes.
“We all agreed that delegates will emerge by either the consensus of the aspirants or election must take place at the various designated wards and local government and that no concurred list will be accepted.”
The governorship aspirants called on the party leadership to ensure strict compliance with the guidelines of the party for the conduct of the Adhoc delegates.