APC Primaries: Ekiti Rep Demands Rerun Of Exercise

A member of the House of Representatives, representing Ekiti North Federal Constituency II, Hon. Kolawole Akinlayo, has rejected the outcome of Saturday’s All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives Primary election in Ekiti State.

Akinlayo, who described the primary election as a sham, said the exercise is fraught with irregularities.

He explained that no election was held in his constituency, comprising the Ido/Osi/Moba/Ilejemeje local government areas of the state.

Addressing reporters in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, the federal lawmaker said the Saturday election should be cancelled, and a fair and credible one should be conducted under tight security.

Insisting that there was no election, Akinlayo said, “That’s a fact, because in the entire Ilejemeje, there was no election. For me, the primary election was a sham, and it was a disgrace to democracy.

“Figures were written. People were in the queue from 8 am to almost 11 am. Nobody came to attend to them.

We saw some men trying to disperse people; they took the results sheets and wrote the results.

“Also, some government officials came asking to see the electoral officer, and collected the photocopy of the resource sheet, and went away with it and drove them away. I have all the video evidence of all these things happening. So, is that what we call an election? That was not an election. Manipulated figures were announced”, he alleged.

While maintaining that elections should be credible to be acceptable to all, he said, “It has to be fair and free, but for the one conducted on Saturday, there was nothing like an election; it was a sham and a rape of democracy.

“Let the popular candidate emerge. There should be no intimidation if you know you’re popular, go for the contest defeat, not by using government instruments to intimidate other contestants”.

He said they will all go to the party leaders to present their grievances and explain what happened to them, adding that he has evidence of what transpired during the exercise.

Akinlayo, however, advised his supporters to remain calm, resilient and to be peaceful, saying, “We are not violent, we will take back our mandate in a lawful way. We will approach the party’s leadership and inform them of what transpires, with video evidence. We have two agents in each ward monitoring the exercise”.