Presidential aspirants in the South Western part of the country have been asked to prune down the number to at least, to two candidates.
The Alliance of Yoruba Democratic Movements, (AYDM) made the request in a press statement, saying that the multiplicity of candidates may rob the region the slot of the Presidency in 2023.
The group said the Northern leaders in the APC appear to have designed the architecture that will lead to the South West political Waterloo in the coming primary slated for the end of May.
“There is a conscious attempt to set the South West against itself. With some six aspirants contesting on the All Progressives Congress (APC) alone, the prospect of the next President emerging from the South West is dim” AYDM, an alliance of some 121 different Pan Yoruba groups said in the statement signed by its General Secretary, Popoola Ajayi.
AYDM called on the South West leadership to employ credibility and public acceptability as the yardstick to arrive at a consensus candidate.
The coalition asked the people of the South West to prepare to move to another political party if the APC failed to produce a Presidential candidate from the region.
“The people of the South West have no other option than to leave the APC if the party fails to pick its Presidential candidate from the region. It will be another sign of treachery and a confirmation that the alliance of the South West and the North in 2015 was in bad faith. It will show clearly that the core North can never be trusted now or in the future” Ajayi said
The group said some of the aspirants have no basis to even collect the forms except for the purpose of deepening the crisis of selection in the APC South West.