Osinbajo, Fayemi Others Refused To Step Down For Tinubu As South West APC Aspirants Meeting Ends In Deadlock

The meeting of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the South West geopolitical zone ended in deadlock as it failed to produce a consensus candidate.

The meeting was called to enable aspirants close ranks and ensure that the most popular aspirant from the zone is produced while others step down, but the meeting which started few hours after President Muhammadu Buhari had held his meeting with all aspirants of the party ended on Sunday morning on a deadlock.

The seven presidential aspirants from the South-West attended the meeting.

The aspirants are Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; APC stalwart, Bola Tinubu; Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; former Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun; Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate, Ajayi Boroffice; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; and fiery Lagos cleric, Pastor Tunde Bakare.

They were joined by governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun) and Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo).

THE WHISTLER gathered that the disagreement from the meeting forced the Vice President, who was the centre of attention to storm out of the meeting towards the end, as he was reportedly told that if he stepped down for Tinubu, others from the zone would.

There was no communique issued at the end of the meeting because of the disagreement as at the time of filing this report.

The meeting was said to have been wrongly constituted with Tinubu’s allies overshadowing the attendants, and speeches were mostly in his favour.

No other meeting has been called. The aspirants will now test their popularity on Wednesday 7th June when the party holds its voting exercise to elect its presidential candidate.