A faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State loyal to Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, a governorship aspirant on the party platform has alleged that Saturday intra-party poll to pick a candidate ahead of the July election was characterised by widespread irregularities.
Abiodun Agboola, the Publicity Secretary of the faction in a statement Saturday condemned the exercise because, according to him, “it is nothing but a sham with a fraudulent process to favour Governor Adegboyega Oyetola”.
The statement titled: “Widespread Irregularities In Osun APC Governorship Primary Election” alleged that verified information from the agents of Alhaji Adeoti has it that there are no record and result sheets in any of the 332 wards of the state.
“Also, there was no proper accreditation in a majority of the ward collation centres where voting took place. The accreditation done in some places were skewed in favour of Governor Gboyega Oyetola as members of the group were allowed to pass through the accreditation process without much ado.
“Names of a sizable number of members of the APC who wanted to vote for Adeoti were missing in the register of the party. This we had envisaged by calling for the display of the party register before the conduct of the primary.
The faction also alleged that appointees of Governor Oyetola were used as Collation Officers, which, according to the group, made the rigging plan of Oyetola an easy task. “This we strongly condemned yesterday at the stakeholders meeting with the Primary Committee”, the group further alleged.
“Loyalists and supporters of Adeoti are being chased and some were brutally attacked in wards where they have a strong presence. Oriade, Olorunda and Osogbo, Odo-Otin, Boripe and Ile-Ife are the worst of this act of intimidation and disenfranchisement.
“Where results of the election were announced (not recorded), the figure declared for Oyetola was highly inflated in the affected wards.
Mr Agboola’s statement also alleges that INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) officials were noticeably absent in most of the wards to monitor the election.
“This is unacceptable. It is a shame that a sitting governor could resort to malpractices in his desperate bid to secure a second term
“The Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq led Osun APC Primary Election Committee should know that the primary lacks credibility and fairness”, the faction concluded.
