Supporters of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola in Osun state have alleged massive manipulation of Saturday’s governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress in the state.
BusinessDay reports that there was heavy security presence at strategic areas, even though there was no major incident of security breach, except the killing of a voter in Odogbo-Ijesa by suspected cultists.
The primaries held across 332 wards in the state had been largely peaceful, even though there were pockets of complaints ranging from missing names to non-availability of result sheets, basically from Aregbesola’s supporters.
For instance, they alleged that the exercise was marred in Wards 1, 7 and 9 of Oriade Local Government of the State.
According to an APC member in Ward 1, Erin-Oke, Yinusa Adeyeye, the returning officers came to the collation centre around 1 pm and started rushing up the people to vote.
Adeyeye said the APC members who had been waiting to be accredited since 8 am, got furious and asked the returning officers to do accreditation before voting.
The returning officers reportedly said he was late and could not do any accreditation.
According to him, commotion broke out when Oyetola’s supporters attempted to go ahead with the election without accreditation which was rejected by Adeoti’s supporters.
The development led to the disruption of the election.
Also in Ward 7, Ikeji-Owena and Ward 9, Ipetu-Ijesa, the election was allegedly disrupted by hoodlums when the people on the queue were about to be counted.
The thugs were allegedly led by the Caretaker Chairman of Oriade South Local Government, Deji Ajimoji and one Bunmi Aboge around 12pm in Ward 7, Owena and around 1pm in Ipetu-Ijesa.
According to Mikail Oyediran a member of the APC, the Chairman and the hoodlums came with a branded IleriOluwa (campaign slogan of Governor Oyetola) bus and his official car.
Oyediran said the chairman and the thugs chased away APC members on the queue and left.
But, state Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, lauded the turnout of members of the All Progressives Congress during Saturday’s governorship primary.
Oyetola, who spoke in Iragbiji, after voting during the exercise, however, called on the people to maintain peace.
He said the election should not be turned to battle field, saying there should be no violence.
“Well, let me say that the turnout has been meaningful, and I thank God that we were able to do it peacefully. All the members of the party have the opportunity to decide who will carry the flag of the party…I happened to be one of the aspirants as well and I don’t expect anything less.
“I want to appeal to all our people all over the state to please maintain peace. This election process should not be a battle field. It’s should not be a do or die affair. There should be no violence. Let everybody have the opportunity of participating in his choice of who should be the candidate of our party.
“I think that’s the process and I think it has gone very well contrary to the speculation.
I have called some numbers places in the state, I think it’s been peaceful conduct of the process,” he said.
Also, Governor Oyetola got 1,612 votes to defeat Moshood Adeoti, the candidate supported by the Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola.
Ex-Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf also received zero vote.
Both Adeoti and Lasun Yusuf did not have agents representing them in Oyetola’s ward 01, Iragbiji.
According to the returning officer, Samson Oyebode, 2, 053 voters were accredited in the ward.
Meanwhile, Abiodun Agboola, the Publicity Secretary of a faction in Osun state chapter of the All Progressives Congress backed by the Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, has alleged irregularities in the Saturday’s governorship primary of the party.
Read also: Aregbesola loses ward to Oyetola as gov wins ward in Osun APC guber primary
Agboola, who condemned the conduct of the election, said the exercise was planned to favour Osun state governor, Adegboyega Oyetola.
A statement signed by Agboola, further read in parts, “Verified information from the agents of Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, our governorship aspirant, 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 the majority of the ward collation centres where voting was taken 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 sizeable 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 party register before the conduct of the primary.”
He also alleged that Oyetola’s appointees were used as Collation Officers for the exercise, claiming that the development made manipulation of the election easy.
As of the time of filing this report, collation of results has not commenced.
