Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Farouq Aliyu, has attributed the party’s defeat in the Osun State governorship election to internal divisions and opposition to its candidate.
Aliyu said the APC did everything it considered necessary to secure victory but was weakened by disagreements within its ranks ahead of the poll.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday the election outcome, he said some party members were unhappy with the emergence of Bola Oyebamiji as the APC candidate and consequently withheld their support during the campaign.
He identified the candidate controversy as one of the major factors responsible for the party’s poor performance, stressing the need for the APC to review its candidate-selection process.
He said, “We did our best. I mean, we did what we thought could make us win the election, but of course, here and there, at the back end, we’re discussing to see the details of really what has happened.
“We did everything, everything possible, humanly possible, to win the election, and kudos also to our government. I mean, the federal government in such a way that all the political pundits who thought that APC was going to just take it, and APC was just going to write the results and so on, things happened the way they did, and Osun people decided they wanted Accord party, and so be it.
“You know there’s a lot of internal wranglings amongst our members. You know, in Osun State, there are people who were not happy with our candidate, which is true. Some people were happy with the candidate.
“So, in terms of choice of candidate, probably that’s what we have to look at to make sure that probably the person who has the the largest followership amongst the party members is put up for election.
“Certainly some members of our party did not do what they are supposed to do because out of anger, really they didn’t like their candidate.
“So that’s the major problem internally that we had. It’s amongst us.”
Aliyu, however, accepted the election outcome and congratulated the Accord Party, saying the decision of Osun voters must be respected in a democracy.
He also commended the conduct of the election, noting that the result demonstrated the importance of allowing voters to determine their preferred candidates.
The APC chieftain urged the party to learn from the defeat and address its internal disagreements ahead of future elections.
