Date: 2012-06-18

The struggle has begun for the gubernatorial ticket of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State for the 2015 general elections . The development, according to sources close to the leadership of the ACN in the state is already tearing the party apart, as the leadership is said to be in dilemma over who becomes the standard bearer. 

While the gubernatorial candidate of the party in the 2011 elections, Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), is still hoping to get the ticket in 2015, the ambition of the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed is said to be constituting obstacle on his way. 

Daily Sun gathered that the ambition of Lai Mohammed had split the party's members along pro-Belgore and pro-Mohammed lines. It was further gathered that the scheme to make Lai Mohammed the next gubernatorial candidate of ACN began immediately after Belgore lost out in the 2011 elections and the subsequent legal battle he instituted against the incumbent governor of the state, Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed. 

The ACN supporters, who are Lai Mohammed's men were said to have backed off from Belgore's camp. Sources further confided in Daily Sun that Lai Mohammed had revived his campaign machinery, a group known as Lai Mohammed Political Organization (LAMPO), adding that the politician held a meeting with some ACN leaders in Isin, Oyun and Irepodun, where he allegedly intimated them about his ambition. 

While a prominent motor dealer in Ilorin East with royal connection in Ilorin emirate was said to be the arrow head of the struggle to get the ACN's gubernatorial ticket for Lai Mohammed, Belgore's supporters, Daily Sun gathered, insisted that any attempt to withdraw the ticket from him would be resisted.