Legislative aspirants of the All Progressives Congress in Osun state have accused governor Gboyega Oyetola of hijacking results of primaries even as the opposition Peoples Democratic Party mocked the governor for failure in government and party affairs.
We run the two stories below:
RAPE OF DEMOCRACY BY GOVERNOR GBOYEGA OYETOLA AND HIS COLLABORATORS
This Press Conference is jointly addressed by 12 aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State of Osun, who belong to The Osun Progressives (TOP) caucus of the party. We welcome our dear members of the fourth estate of the realm to this press conference. We acknowledge the authentic leadership of the progressive’s political platform in Osun as constituted by those here now and numerous others in absence.
On behalf of other aspirants to the State House of Assembly and National Assembly positions, and the leadership of the authentic progressive’s platform, 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. An autocratic and dictatorial regime couldn’t 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.
We the undersigned are members of the All Progressives Congress in the State of Osun and are aspirants who obtained Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest for House of Assembly and House of Representatives in our various state constituencies and federal constituencies in the state.
In line with the available sketchy guidelines of the party and short notice available to us following our tenacious search for information, we participated in the screening conducted by the party and we were cleared to take part in the primary elections.
However, after the screening exercise, Governor Oyetola called a meeting of all the State House of Assembly and National Assembly aspirants to the Government House, Osogbo, where, among other anti-democratic statements uttered by the Governor, he stated that some aspirants are not loyal to him, (not necessarily to the party) and he would not allow them to emerge victorious in the primary elections.
It would be recalled that, the primary elections for the state House of Assembly was slated for Thursday 26th May, 2022. To our dismay and chagrin, till the day of that primary there was no communication at all about the modalities for the election. The committee saddled with the responsibilities of conducting the election was not known to anybody, especially we the aspirants in our tendency. We considered that act as a deliberate way of tactically excluding us from the race. Apart from the fact that we did not see any committee from the National Secretariat, NOBODY called to inform us about the modalities for the Election. However, around 1pm on Thursday, 26th of May, the day slated for the House of Assembly primary election, a letter surfaced from unknown source and largely shared on the social media, wherein a Direct Primary mode of Elections was supposedly adopted for Osun, Benue and Kebbi states. The letter which was dated 25th May, 2022 was purportedly signed by His Excellency, Senator Abdulahi Adamu, the National Chairman of our party, and the National Secretary.
Meanwhile, even before the letter surfaced online, we as popular aspirants in our various constituencies have mobilized the party members who are our supporters to the various collation centres in our constituencies, so that we might not be caught unawares. When the said letter from the National Secretariat surfaced online, we quickly sent messages round to all our supporters to stay put at the various ward collation centres for the primary election. Our people were there 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.
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, 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 winner in the contests. In practical terms, the reason espoused for the existence of our tendency, reformation of Osun APC, couldn’t have been better brought to the fore than the present show of shame. It is obvious that the Osun APC is rudderless and lack needed discipline which can only exists where the leadership is forthright, upright and seasoned.
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.
Therefore, we call on His Excellency, the National Chairman of our party, 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 is too late.
Thank you all for listening attentively and we pray that you will auspiciously relay this important information to the general public and the particular audience it is meant for, to protect Nigeria’s democratic development.
Signed
Hon. Waseeu Gbola Adebayo
Olorunda State Constituency
Owoade Ademola Adeyemi
Irewole/Isokan State Constituency
Wahab Kazeem Olanrewaju
Ifelodun State Constituency
Babalola Iqmal Opeyemi
Ede South State Constituency
Kolawole Olalere Victor
Ilesa East State Constituency
Mrs. Adesola Arawole Adegbite
Odo-Otin State Constituency
Olaoye Abdulhakeem
Osogbo State Constituency
Mrs. Olaniyi Shariat Olanike
Ayedaade State Constituency
Kasali Nurudeen Adelaja
Iwo State Constituency
Opadola Abdullahi Amobi
Olaoluwa State Constituency
Hon. (Dr) Komolafe Akinlabi Richard
Ijesha-South Federal Constituency
Ibrahim Oyekunle
Ayedaade/Irewole/Isokan Federal Constituency
OSUN PDP MOCKS OYETOLA OVER INCONCLUSIVE LEGISLATIVE PRIMARIES
The Osun PDP Governorship Campaign Organisation has derided the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun state over its inconclusive legislative primaries, describing the party as “a den of anti-people dictators specialising in truncating the will of the people”
In a statement issued on Monday, the organisation berated the APC and Governor Gboyega Oyetola for demonstrated incompetency in public governance and now in party administration, noting that ” the failure of APC government has now extended to lack of capacity to transparently organised a free and fair primaries and congresses.
“It is hard to imagine that nearly a week after primaries were supposedly held by the APC for various elective offices across Osun state, the outcomes are still are a source of controversies. If APC needs help , we are ready to help them organise a credible primaries ,” the statement reads.
“This shameful and undemocratic approach has left many confused as aspirants and their supporters took turns to declare themselves winners. It is the height of irresponsibility and this goes to show that the APC can no longer be trusted with the management of the state.
“Whereas, the PDP conducted credible, fair, and free primaries and candidates for available positions are known to all, the APC put up a charade that not only makes a mockery of democracy but also explains why it has done a very bad job in managing Osun state over the years.
“If the APC can not conduct transparent primaries, it will not be hard to understand why its management of public resources is marred by confusion. If the APC can not be sincere with its membership by ensuring that the wishes of the majority prevail, it is clear why lies and deceits are the tools of governance in the past twelve years.”
The Campaign Organization charged Osun people to take the show of shame that the APC’s primaries represented as a gauge of its failings, noting that it will be entirely hopeless to expect a party that could not manage its affairs to do anything better for Osun as a whole.
“Osun people can no longer live in denial and must come to terms with the gross failings of the APC. A party that cannot manage itself will not do any better for Osun people, and this fact is what we see everyday in the deplorable condition of our public infrastructure, deliberate denial of the entitlements of workers and pensioners, reckless abuse of public resources, less attention to youth empowerments, among others.”, the statement noted.
