The Action Congress of Nigeria in Ondo State says its members have closed the ranks to ensure that its candidate, Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu, wins the October 20, 20102 governorship election in the state.
The party said this was one of the resolutions reached at the end of a one-day stakeholders meeting put together by the Oranmiyan Sunshine Forum, a group within the ACN, in Akure, the state capital, at the weekend.
Over 1,000 representatives from all the wards in Ondo State were reported to have attended the meeting.
Reading out the agreements reached by representatives from the 18 local government areas of the state, founder and facilitator of Oranmiyan Sunshine Forum, Hon. Bola Ilori, said a MOPOL 18 was also formed to support the party and facilitate quick delivery, well packaged and strategically coordinated campaign for Akeredolu and the party in its bid to claim the Alagbaka Government House, Akure.
According to various suggestions and resolution of the meeting, MOPOL 18, meaning Mobile Politicians, will be the an independent support mechanism for the party’s electioneering campaign coordination for each of the 18 local government areas, which would for a start have one MOPOL in each of the 203 wards in the state.
Their duties and functions will include ensuring that necessary information are passed on to the party secretariat on time while needed requisition that will aid the success of the party are passed to necessary quarters adequately.
The group would be aided to carry out SWOT analysis of the party’s chances in each polling booth ahead of the elections.
Praising the gathering, Ilori said: “You have made wonderful suggestions here today contrary to the view some detractors that the party is bereft of ideas or that we don’t have viable structure or that the party is disunited.”
Ilori, who was the ACN senatorial candidate for Ondo Central in the 2007 general election, announced his readiness to facilitate the operation of MOPOL 18 in all ramifications, saying he will ensure they lacked nothing that may want to hinder their assigned duties.
The ACN chieftain debunked the insinuations in some quarters that the party is suffering from crisis consequent upon the choice of its candidate as he stressed that nothing could be farther from the truth.
He buttressed his submission by noting that there has not been any decampment from the party since the choice was made.
He said it was the opposition that had expected a big fall out that is orchestrating the lie that the ACN is in crisis.
According to Ilori, who is the Special Adviser to the Osun State Governor on Environment and Sanitation, as at the moment, close to 90 per cent of the aspirants have closed ranks and resolved to work for the party’s candidate while some of the aspirants were already calling the meeting of their groups for proper information and instructions on the latest development and the need to close ranks and work to ensure ACN’s success at the October 20 polls.