He disclosed that no matter the result of the primary election he would still remain a full member of the APC in the State and would strengthen his support for the party and its members.
Olusola Oke, a governorship aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, has said he is not contemplating losing the party’s primary election that has been fixed for August 27th, 2016 by its national leaders.
Mr. Oke spoke on Wednesday during a special political program aired on a private broadcast radio station, Adaba-88.9fm, in Akure, the Ondo State capital, and monitored from SaharaReporters’ office.
He disclosed that no matter the result of the primary election he would still remain a full member of the APC in the State and would strengthen his support for the party and its members.
“I am not contemplating losing the primary. But even if I were to lose it, why would I start a new process again in another political party?
“I am a believer in democracy. Once we have gone through a free, fair, credible primary election I would have no basis to complain in the first place, let alone to warrant going to another party,” Mr. Oke said.
Mr. Oke, a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate in the 2012 governorship election in the State, also denied that he is a known serial defector and could leave the APC if he loses in the primary election.
“If you look at me as an individual, I have no record of reckless movement in and out of a political party. In my life I have left a political party for the first time when I came to APC and that was at the point of demise of the PDP.
“I am not inordinate, I am a character that believes in relationship. I have built a relationship in APC. I have invested a lot of time, energy and resources so there is no idea that would cross my mind to leave the APC for another political party and to start a new process all over.
“The delegates have accepted me as a potential candidate of the party and I am not a threat, but I have become a threat because of my strength and popularity,” he said.
A SaharaReporters correspondent reported that the erstwhile National Legal Adviser of the PDP also maintained that no individual has an overwhelming influence to subvert the primary election if its process is transparent.
He pleaded with the national leadership of the APC who would conduct the primary election in August to ensure its process and conduct are open and transparent to avoid unnecessary rancor between the delegates and repetition of the hitches in Edo State primary election.
“I am doing well in this primary and there is no way I would imagine that I am not going to win to warrant the situation whereby I would be contemplating an exit from the party. I have put my hand into the plough and am not going to look back.
“Let the organizers in Abuja ensure that the process [primary election] can be trusted; the ballot papers are not amendable to such imaginations or allegations.
“The accreditation should be done around the voting centers where everybody would see it. I am expecting a neater, cleaner and rancor-free primary election in Ondo State,” Mr. Oke pleaded further.
He also stated that the opposition party needs a vibrant candidate that could win the election and stand tall with the ruling PDP in the State being controlled by the embattled Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
On the two million-naira fee levied on all the aspirants, Mr. Oke said the State leadership of the party held a meeting with all the aspirants where a consensus was reached to finance the party since there was no running grant from the government.
“The government doesn’t fund the political party and the running of the party requires finance.
“The aspirants and the party leadership in the State puts heads together to examine ways and means of generating resources for the party.
“It was the result of the dialogue between the party’s leadership and aspirants that led to the agreement for each aspirant to pay two million naira as a developmental fee for the party,” he said.
Mr. Oke advised the over 2000 delegates that would vote to choose the party’s main flag-bearer not to be money-driven but to consider the interest of the party and be guided by their conscience and the antecedent of the would-be candidate of the party.
