Ten state assembly and two national assembly aspirants on the platform of All Progressives Congress in Osun State on Monday demanded cancellation of both State and National Assembly primaries of the party in the state.
The aspirants, who belong to ‘The Osun Progressives,’ a caucus in Osun APC supported by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, accused the governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, of acting with impunity and in disregard to democratic principles governing conduct of the party’s primaries.
Addressing newsmen in Osogbo, ex member of Osun State House of Assembly, representing Olorunda State Constituency, Waseeu Adebayo, who was flanked by other aspirants, said the APC leadership could not announce the results of the primary days after they were held because of manipulation being perpetrated with the outcome.
He said, “Our people were at the various collation centres and nothing was happening until around 5pm when some factional Ward Chairmen from the Governor’s camp surfaced, claiming to be the Presiding Officer for the primary election. These chairmen did not come to the collation centres with any electoral materials like APC membership register, results sheets, e.t.c. They just asked the party members to raise up their membership cards, queue and without any proper accreditation, did the counting, wrote the results on a piece of paper and left.
“Even with such fraudulent and reprehensible conduct, our supporters were more than those of our opponents and we had the highest number. In some wards, there was no counting of APC members at all. There and then, we went to various collation centres for the Local Government where the results for the local government ought to be collated. Nobody showed up at the Local Government Collation Centre till we left there around 8:30, 9pm and 10pm as the case may be.
“The same scenario was repeated for the House of Representatives primary which took place on Friday 27th May, 2022 and up till this moment, there are no official results for both the State House of Assembly and National Assembly primary elections in Osun. Finally, the information at our disposal is that all 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, hence the need for this conference.”
But when contacted for reaction, Osun State Commissioner for Political Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Taiwo Akeju, said the committees sent from Abuja by the APC national leadership were in charge of the primary and would release the result.
“No one is writing names inside Government House. The conduct of the primary was not our duty. Committees from Abuja were in charge of the exercise and they will release the results. They should not spread rumour,” Akeju said.