A Chieftain of All Progressive Congress, Pastor Olusegun Aiyerin has harped on a genuine, sincere and meaningful reconciliation as the sine qua non for winning the February 2023 general election, Starnews Nigeria can report.
He said this during a meeting with Prince Jimi Odimayo, APC House of Representatives Candidate for Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency, and other party leaders at Idepe – Okitipupa over the weekend.
Aiyerin said when the visiting candidate called him on phone a few weeks after the primaries, he told him that such a reconciliation would be a tonic for the supporters of all that contested the primaries with him. He said that Ilutitun community would be delivered to the ruling APC in the 2023 election.
Pastor Aiyerin, the former Ondo Commissioner for Agriculture cautioned leaders of the ruling APC in Okitipupa LG against blackmailing as well as making inflammatory and spurious statements capable of causing further disunity in the party.
Starnews Nigeria reports that Pastor Ayerin advised leaders of the party to embrace all the candidates irrespective of how they emerged at the primary. “A leader is not a leader if he is working against the candidate of his party simply because the candidate did not emerge from his camp during the primary. A leader should be more tolerant and broad-minded. “I was a light-coloured person before; insults and dirty things of all sort, heaped on me, from within and without, which I tolerated and now turned me into a black man,” he said.
On party benefits and patronage, the former two-term Executive Chairman of Okitipupa Local Government advised party members to be patient, adding however that tomorrow will be alright.
“When I resigned as a serving Commissioner to join APC six years ago, I could recall upon all entreaty by Mr Governor to synergistically work with the APC to deliver Okitipupa LG”. This we did and our party took over the state. I have since contested the ticket of the MHR twice and I lost not because I lack what it takes to win a general election or because I am not popular.
“Despite all these, I am not ready to leave the party even though I am yet to benefit from the party. My point is, when there’s life, there’s hope. Let’s keep doing our best to support the party as we will keep encouraging those close to the governor to tell him to alleviate the high level of poverty in the state as the people are complaining of hunger,” he added.
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