The Managing Director of Ogun State Waste Management Authority (OGWAMA) and aspirant contesting for the governorship seat in Ogun State, Abayomi Hunye, has dismissed the rumours making rounds that leaders of the All Progressive Congress(APC) in the state have picked a preferred candidate to contest the position come the 2027 elections.
Hunye, who spoke yesterday in Abeokuta against the backdrop that the party’s leader has unanimously endorsed a preferred candidate to contest the number one seat in the next election, described the rumour as unfounded, which has no legitimacy without consensus from the party’s leadership.
He said that to have a consensus candidate, the party executives and leaders in the state have to come together to consider variables among aspirants vying for the position before picking one, stressing that it was unacceptable for someone to talk to the press on the party’s choice of candidate without its consent.
Hunye said: “I want to use this opportunity to clear the air that nobody has been picked from anywhere, and if anybody is claiming to be such, I think it is a rumour and I want to stand by that as a rumour.” “So I am saying is let them consider whatever means that they have to use, not that somebody will just wake up in the morning and start talking to the press and mislead or misinform us that somebody has been picked.”
“Naturally you can have a consensus amongst us the consensus can only be at the level of the party they look at us and consider different variables and say this is the person we preferred. At least I have contested twice, and this is my time, and I pray God will help me,” he noted.
The Former Commissioner for Community Development and Cooperatives in the state, however, appealed to Ogun Central and Ogun East Senatorial Districts to allow OgunWest to produce the next governor, noting that the region has been marginalised since the creation of the state in 1976.
He divulged that although the three Senatorial Districts of the state have rights to produce the next governor, for the sake of fairness, both Ogun Central and Ogun East should allow the next governor to come from Ogun West, expressing regret that despite economic contributions to the state from the region, it has yet to have a governor.
“I am from Ogun west and I am also using this opportunity to make an appeal to other quarters, especially the Egbas; at least they should consider us. For the past 50 years, the other two sides, because we have three Senatorial Districts in Ogun State, we have the Ogun West, Ogun Central, and Ogun East, but it has always been between the Central and the East”.
“Everybody has the right, every Ogun State indigene has the right for it, but for fair play, 50 years ago, it has always been between two Senatorial districts (Ogun Central and Ogun East). Are you saying OgunWest is not part of the state?
When you talk of the economic nerve centre of the state is in Ogun West, and if we have contributed so much, courtesy demands that we should also be considered for such a position. “The economic hub of the state is Ogun west.
Look at Agbara and others. And look how long Ogun West has been supporting Ogun State in terms of revenue and others, and yet we have not been able to have the number one seat, legitimately. We all have a right to it, but to be fair to other groups, they should consider Ogun West,” he added.
