Two aspirants and the agents of two other contestants have raised concerns about the conduct of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary for the Ondo governorship elections.
They allege that based on the conduct of the exercise, plans are being made to favour certain aspirants.
One of the 16 aspirants in the race for the APC ticket, Olugbenga Edema, decried delays in the distribution of materials and called on the party to investigate the process.
“What we are talking about is there should be a credible election that will allow our people to vote and their votes should count,” he said.
“So we are asking the leadership of the party to look into this. If they are not ready for this election, let them postpone it so that the right thing should be done.”
Edema explained that the exercise was being conducted contrary to the schedule, and he faulted the seven-man primary committee led by Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State with a former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, as secretary.
He said, “The secretary of that committee that came from Abuja, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, informed us that the collection of voting materials which include the register of voters, that is the membership register, the result sheet, and all the materials they require for the election, will be distributed to the electoral officers whose names he announced to us in each of the 203 wards of Ondo State; that they should come to BON Hotel Parklane Avenue, Akure, and collect their materials.
Accreditation will start by 10 o’clock to be completed by one o’clock.
Voting proper will start from one o’clock and end at two o’clock, then the announcement of results.
”Contrary to the plan, according to the aspirant, at 10:30 am, materials had not been distributed, even though he and his team had been waiting from as early as 6:30 am.
“At about 9:30 am, His Excellency, the Governor of Kogi State, (Usman) Ododo, came out to tell us that materials have been distributed. At what time? In what places? We don’t know,” said an upset Edema.
“Unfortunately for him, the returning officer and the electoral officer of my ward; in Ward 2, Ilaje Local Government Area, who are residents in Ibadan — I told them to come here today so that they can collect the materials of my ward.
Now they are here. They have not been able to collect the materials.
“And he has the effrontery to tell us, all the other aspirants, that materials have been collected and results are being announced at 10 o’clock when accreditation should ordinarily start. So, we have asked him questions and he rushed out because he had no answer to our questions.”
Rotimi Williams, the agent for another aspirant, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Olushola Oke, had a similar position.
What we are saying is ‘follow the guidelines’.” the Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation described the exercise as a “sham”.
“The truth is that no primary election was conducted. What happened in all the 203 wards in Ondo state can be described as a sham. It defies all descriptions of decency and democratic conduct,” the spokesperson of the Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation Ojo Oyewamide said.
“In a return to the dark days of thuggery in Ondo State, our supporters, and supporters of other aspirants, were beaten, intimidated, and chased away from most of the designated voting centres by known political thugs and secret cult members hired by one of the aspirants,” .
