The campaign Organisation of Ondo State governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on Sunday debunked claims of disagreement in his faction following the choice of his running mate ahead of the November governorship poll in the state.
Since Aiyedatiwa won the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress held in Akure on Saturday, April 20, some chieftains have been lobbying to be his running mate.
A chieftain of the party, who pleaded anonymity revealed that some loyalists to the governor in the Northern and Central Senatorial districts of the state do not want him to pick his incumbent deputy governor, Mr Olayide Adelami, as his running mate.
He said, “Many members close to Aiyedatiwa in the central senatorial district, particularly in Akure, are lobbying to be his running mate. There has been internal division on this matter in the camp of the governor over this issue.
“Some from the Akoko area and Owo are desperately lobbying the national leadership of the party to prevail on Aiyedatiwa to make them his running mate. All they want is for Adelami (current deputy governor) to complete one year given to the Owo people as compensation for Akeredolu’s death.”
Reacting to the development, the spokesman of the Lucky Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation Foot Soldiers, Mr Kayode Fasua, said the Aiyedatiwa’s political team was intact without any division.
Fasua said, “It is an issue to be trashed out, having weighed requisite political considerations. The governorship election is still seven months away and there is enough time to deliberate on the matter of a running mate.
“However, the sitting deputy governor remains and he is working in full throttle, as it were, with Mr. Governor. The issue, to my knowledge, has not generated any discontent, except in the imagination of naysayers.”