Crisis Erupts in Osun APC, Aspirants Call for Cancellation of Primaries

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

No fewer than 10 aspirants in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osun State, have jointly called for the cancellation of the House of Assembly and National Assembly primary elections of the party, which they described as a sham.

The aspirants, who were made up of 10 for House of Assembly and two for House of Representatives, pointed accusing fingers on Governor of Osun State, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, and alleged acts of impunity and total disregard to democratic principles on the conduct of the primaries.

The aspirants, yesterday, contended that the direct primaries were conducted without any election material or party document like membership register, result sheets, among others.

The aspirants included 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) and Mr. Kolawole Olalere Victor, (Ilesa East State Constituency.

Others were 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); Hon. Komolafe Akinlabi Richard, (Ijesha-South Federal Constituency) and Mr. Ibrahim Oyekunle, (Ayedaade/Irewole/Isokan Federal Constituency).

Addressing a press conference yesterday, the aspirants noted that all results of the primaries were not announced at the various ward and local government collation centres by the factional APC’s ward chairmen who were appointed as collation officers by Oyetola.

They added that the result sheet of each of the state and federal constituencies were kept in the Government House where the ‘governor’s people’ were allocating figures to their preferred aspirants.

The aspirants alleged that the failure of the party leadership to declare the winners of the State House of Assembly and Federal House of Representatives primaries in each constituency was as a result of the fraud and manipulation of the results as directed by the governor.

While reading the text of the press conference, Hon. Adeboye, a two-term state lawmaker, said: “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 whole world, the charade and sham that Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and his ilk called primary elections in the state.”

According to him, “an autocratic and dictatorial regime could not do worse in dragging democracy on the floor than what Governor Oyetola and his collaborators have done on the House of Assembly and National Assembly primaries of our party.

“The late dark goggle general didn’t bring as much odium to democracy as Governor Oyetola. Our people were at the various collation centres and nothing was happening until around 5p.m. when some factional ward chairmen from the governor’s camp surfaced, claiming to be the presiding officers for the primary election.

“These chairmen did not come to the collation centres with any electoral materials like APC membership register, results sheets, etc. 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.”

He stressed that “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’s collation centre till we left there around 8:30 p.m., 9p.m. and 10p.m .as the case may be.

“The same scenario was repeated for the House of Representatives primary which took place on Friday, May 27, 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 State.

“May we note that with the high level of impunity and manipulations involved in the process and shenanigans engaged to get rid of us, the joke has now turned on Governor Oyetola’s group, as all its aspirants in various constituencies are laying claims to victory and confirming it with concocted figures aimed to suite their fraud.

“It is unheard of, and even a shameful experience, that four and three days after the primaries have been held, the governor and his collaborators in the party are unable to declare the winners in the contests.”

He noted that 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.”

They, therefore, called on the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to use his good office to correct the current act of impunity and rape of democracy being displayed by Governor Gboyega Oyetola before it would be too late.