One of the governorship aspirants in the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Mr Wale Akinterinwa, has declared that the seven-man primary election committee led by Governor Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State did not conduct any primary election in state.
Akinterinwa said the purported primary election conducted by Ododo can be better described as a make-believe exercise.
In a statement signed by the spokesperson for the group, Segun Ajiboye, the Akinterinwa campaign organization stated that there are incontrovertible evidence that there was no election and that the Governor Ododo-led election committee merely concocted figures in their hotel rooms and declared same as results of the primary.
According to the statement, “The Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation wishes to put on record our observations of the show of shame put on display on Saturday, April 20, 2024, by the election committee for the Ondo State governorship primary election.
“Without any fear of contradiction, we state here that no election was held in any part of Ondo State on Saturday to elect the candidate of the APC. It is on record with incontrovertible evidence that nothing in the semblance of a primary election was held in all the 203 wards in Ondo State. At best, what can be said to have happened was that the committee chairman, Governor Ododo, arrived in the state at about 8am on Saturday to write the result of an election that was never conducted.
“The people have eyes and they can see. But on Saturday, they did not see any part of the state where electoral committee members counted the votes as expected. Rather, what they witnessed was a crowd of our enthusiastic supporters who stood in the sun for several hours waiting for the elusive electoral officers to turn up.”
According to the group, on Friday, April 19, 2024, the secretary of the committee, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who stood in for Governor Usman Ododo at the stakeholders’ meeting, had assured all the aspirants and other stakeholders that all the guidelines put in place to ensure the integrity and smooth conduct of the nomination exercise would be followed to the letter.
“But it was not surprising that what Governor Ododo did on Saturday was far distant from what was promised. However, what was surprising was the audacity and the indecent manner the election committee actualised its plot, which was scripted and directed to favour a particular candidate.
“For them, a little display of decency by allowing the 203 wards’ election committees to pretend to do their job was a sheer waste of their precious time. Never before in the history of the APC have we witnessed anything close to what was put on display on Saturday.
“Saturday’s sham election will probably go down as one of the most controversial primary elections ever conducted by our party. The supportive and hardworking members of the APC were robbed and made to understand or believe that their votes do not count.”
Also, supporters of another aspirant, Chief Olusola Oke (SAN) on Sunday trooped out in their large numbers to call for cancellation of the primary election of the party held on Saturday over controversies that followed the exercise.
Meanwhile, collation of the results of the primary election commenced last night amid protest.
Addressing journalists during the protest in Akure, the state capital, director general for Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation, Ondo Central Senatorial District, Adeniran Oyebade, called for the suspension of the Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo from the party-led committee.
Oyebade said, “Election crime is a serious crime. You cannot come to the wards of our people and start terrorising them against their will. We are protesting against our mandate that was stolen. It was a broad-daylight robbery, a monumental disaster. APC delegated some people to Ondo State to conduct the primary; apparently, that was never done.
“They remained in Akure and started writing results. They wrote the results of 203 wards all across Ondo State, taking the mandate of the people into their own hands.
“At the end of the day, we started seeing different results flying around stating one particular candidate won the election, but that never happened. APC as a party is about to set Ondo State on fire, and we will never take this lightly.
“Ododo should be suspended from the party. What we want is the cancellation of the election because any election did not take place. There is no need to say that the election was inconclusive. ”
