Notable leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the South West were conspicuously missing at the party’s campaign rally in Akure, Ondo State, in preparation for the governorship election holding on November 26.

National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu and three APC governors in the South-West, namely: Akinwumi Ambode, Rauf Aregbosola and Abiola Ajimobi, of Lagos, Osun and Oyo States respectively, boycotted the rally which was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday.

The reason for their absence was not clear yet but it may not be unconnected with the internal wrangling within the APC following the emergence of Rotimi Akeredolu as the party’s flag-bearer in Ondo State.

However, President Buhari was joined at the rally by the Imo State governor, who is also the chairman  of APC Governors’ Forum, Rochas Okorocha, as well as governors of Plateau, Kano, Ogun, Jigawa, Edo, States were present at the rally

Okorocha in his speech at the rally said that all the governors of the party were behind the candidacy of the party’s flag-bearer, Rotimi Akeredolu.

He said, “Ondo State must join the progressives states in Nigeria, therefore we must vote for him and he will win the election.”

According to Okorocha, “Akeredolu rejected federal appointments because he loves you people. He wants to serve you, so vote for him.”

Recall that before the APC governorship primary election in Ondo State, Tinubu had publicly endorsed one of the candidates, Olusegun Abraham, a move that did not go down well with the other candidates who viewed the party leader’s action as an act of imposition of a candidate on them.

However, after the primary election, Abraham, Tinubu’s anointed candidate lost out to Akeredolu, but he and the other candidates claimed that the exercise was not free and fair and called for a cancellation.

A panel set-up by the APC National leadership to look into the matter also recommended that the exercise be cancelled, but the party’s National Chairman, John Oyegun, overruled the decision of the panel, insisting that Akeredolu remained the party’s flag-bearer.

This was viewed as an affront to Tinubu, who wasted no time in calling for Oyegun’s resignation; a call that has been re-echoed by notable APC members including former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, and APC’s deputy publicity secretary, Timi Frank.