Some All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirants for the State and National Assembly primaries held in Osun state last weekend have faulted the election, citing irregularities.
Hon. Waseeu Adebayo from Olorunda State Constituency faulted the election while speaking to newsmen and party members on behalf of eleven other aggrieved aspirants in Osogbo.
The aggrieved aspirants under the aegis of The Osun Progressives (TOP) caucus described the election as a charade, capable of tarnishing the image of the party.
Adebayo expressed sadness that guidelines and modalities for the conduct of the primaries were not revealed until a few hours before the elections.
He said: “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 1 pm on Thursday, 26th of May, the day slated for the House of Assembly primary election, a letter surfaced from an 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”.
Hon. Adebayo, who noted that all the aggrieved aspirants duly obtained Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest the State House of Assembly and House of Representatives seats in their various state and federal constituencies, said they were also duly cleared to contest.
He alleged that the party in the state gave sketch guidelines and short notices and did not follow the due process prescribed for a direct primary election.
He added that authentic electoral materials such as the APC membership register and results sheets were not used in the process.
“They just asked the party members to raise their membership cards, queue and without any proper accreditation, did the counting, wrote the results on a PIECE OF PAPER and left,” he said.
Adebayo, therefore, called on the national leadership of the party to look into the matter and correct all the anomalies identified.
Dominica Nwabufo
