Date: 2017-08-22

Several aspirants who have indicated interest to run for the Kwara State local government election now slated for November 18, 2017 under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have started pulling out from the race, National Pilot can authoritatively report.

This development is coming on the heels of the 250,000 intent fee to be paid by each APC Chairmanship aspirant and the directive from the leadership of the party in the state for all intending contestants who are still in the civil service to resign their positions.

Some of the aspirants, this medium gathered last night, described the intent fee set by the leadership of the APC in the state, as "outrageous."

Some of the interested contestants have reportedly started last minute attempt to try and raise the money with the hope that they may be compensated if they fail to get the ticket.

With the latest decision of the party, interested chairmanship contestants will subsequently cough out close to N300, 000 while their councillorship counterpart are expected to part with a combine fee of about N75,000.

It was gathered that apart from the N250,000 chairmanship fee, the aspirants will further pay N25,000 to the party in their respective councils and another N10,000 for expression of interest.

The councillorship candidates on their part have been asked to pay N50,000 for the contest, N10,000 to the party at the local government and N10,000 for the expression of interest.

Speaking on the issue last night, a reliable source confirmed that some of the aspirants have been making moves to raise the fund reaching out to their financially buoyant associates to bail them out.

"Following the party's decision to fix the chairmanship and councillorship fees, many of the interested aspirants across the 16 local governments of the state have been pulling out of the race complaining that the fees were not only unrealistic but outrageously exorbitant for council contest.

"Others who are still hoping to contest at this stage, have started making efforts to raise the money and have been reaching out to their more illustrious colleagues to bail them out.

"Even though the party has encouraged many people to come into the race to give a level playing field, they consider some of the aspirants as jesters who are just making empty noise.

"With the new development, the party is stylishly streamlining the process to accommodate only serious contestants, which might lead to consensus at the end of the day as some of the local governments have started discussion on harmonising their initially exaggerated list.

"The party has also directed all those interested in the race to henceforth resign their appointments from their respective employments in abeyance with the provision of the civil service rules," the source added.

Meanwhile, feelers last night from Moro local government suggested that the party was preparing a different arrangement for its contestants.

According to unconfirmed report, the aspirants have reportedly been asked to pay N150,000 to the party instead of the N250,000 collected by other local governments for the chairmanship contest.

The rationale behind the decision could not be verified before the paper went to bed but a source who spoke on the issue on condition of anonymity said, "The reason for such decision will be clearer later but now that is the position of things.

It was however gathered that a caucus meeting of the party at local government level was scheduled for yesterday to try "and come out with generally accepted decision to everybody.