Ten APC aspirants in Osun State have called for the cancellation of the party’s House of Assembly and National Assembly primary elections, which they described as a sham.
The aspirants, who included 10 members of the House of Assembly and two members of the House of Representatives, accused the Governor of Osun State, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, of acting with impunity and disregard for democratic principles during the primaries.
The candidates claimed yesterday that the direct primaries were held without any election materials or party documents such as membership registers and result sheets.
Hon. Waseeu Gbola Adebayo, (Olorunda State Constituency); Mr. Owoade Ademola Adeyemi, (Irewole/Isokan State Constituency); Mr. Wahab Kazeem Olanrewaju, (Ifelodun State Constituency); Mr. Babalola Iqmal Opeyemi, (Ede South State Constituency); Mr. Kolawole Olalere Victor,
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Mrs. Adesola Arawole Adegbite (Odo-Otin State Constituency); Mr. Olaoye Abdulhakeem (Osogbo State Constituency); Mrs. Olaniyi Shariat Olanike (Ayedaade State Constituency); Mr Kasali Nurudeen Adelaja (Iwo State Constituency); Mr. Opadola Abdullahi Amobi (Olaoluwa State Constituency
The aspirants told a press conference yesterday that the factional APC’s ward chairmen, who were appointed as collation officers by Oyetola, did not announce all primary results at the various ward and local government collation centres.
They went on to say that the ‘governor’s people’ were allocating figures to their preferred aspirants based on the results sheets of each of the state and federal constituencies kept in the Government House.
The aspirants claimed that the party leadership’s failure to declare the winners of the State House of Assembly and Federal House of Representatives primaries in each constituency was due to fraud and manipulation of the results as directed by the governor.
“On behalf of other aspirants for the State House of Assembly and National Assembly positions, we wish to bring to the fore, indeed the attention of the entire world, the charade and sham that Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and his ilk called primary elections in the state,” said Hon. Adeboye, a two-term state lawmaker.
“An autocratic and dictatorial regime could not do worse in dragging democracy to the floor than Governor Oyetola and his collaborators did on our party’s House of Assembly and National Assembly primaries,” he says.
“Governor Oyetola didn’t bring as much odium to democracy as the late dark goggle general.” Nothing happened until around 5 p.m., when some factional ward chairmen from the governor’s camp appeared, claiming to be the presiding officers for the primary election.
“These chairmen did not bring any electoral materials to the collation centres, such as the APC membership register, results sheets, and so on. They simply asked party members to raise their membership cards, form a line, and, without any proper accreditation, count the votes, write the results on a piece of paper, and leave.”
“Even with such fraudulent and reprehensible conduct, our supporters outnumbered our opponents, and we had the largest number,” he said. APC members were not counted in some wards.
“There and then, we went to various local government collation centres, where the results for the local government were supposed to be collated.” Nobody showed up at the local government’s collation centre until we left around 8:30 p.m., 9 p.m., or 10 p.m., depending on the situation.
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“The same scenario played out in the House of Representatives primary on Friday, May 27, 2022, and there are no official results for both the State House of Assembly and National Assembly primary elections in Osun State as of yet.”
“With the high level of impunity and manipulations involved in the process, as well as shenanigans engaged to get rid of us, the joke has now turned on Governor Oyetola’s group, with all of its aspirants in various constituencies claiming victory and confirming it with concocted figures aimed to suit their fraud.”
“It is unheard of, and even a shameful experience, that the governor and his party collaborators are unable to declare the winners of the contests four and three days after the primaries have been held.”
“All of the results sheets are currently in the custody of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, and the results sheets are being filled with the names of the governor’s cronies who never won the primary elections,” he said.
They therefore urged Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the APC’s National Chairman, to use his good office to correct Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s current act of impunity and rape of democracy before it is too late.
