Osun APC Primary: TOP Members Fault The Process, Allege Irregularities

The members of the factional group of the Osun All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, The Osun Progressives (TOP), have alleged irregularities in the conduct of the party’s governorship primary election on Saturday.

The TOP members, who are loyalists of the former governor of the state and Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, said the election was unacceptable.

The members, who had supported Moshood Adeoti in the gubernatorial primary election, in a statement issued by the APC factional Publicity Secretary, Abiodun Agboola, alleged that they were disenfranchised.

They further described the governorship primary election as a “fraudulent process to favour Governor Adegboyega Oyetola”.

The statement read in part, “We strongly condemned the conduct of the primary election because it is nothing but a sham with a fraudulent process to favour Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

“Verified information from the agents of Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, our governorship aspirant, has it that there is no record and result sheets in any of the 332 wards of the state.

“Also, there were no proper accreditation in 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 accreditation process without much ado.

“Names of 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.

“We also need to inform the general public that appointees of governor Adegboyega Oyetola were used as Collation Officers, which made the rigging plan of Oyetola an easy task. This we strongly condemned yesterday at the stakeholders meeting with the Primary Committee.

“Loyalists and supporters of Adeoti are being chased and some were brutally attacked in wards where they have strong presence. Oriade, Olorunda and Osogbo, Odo-Otin, Boripe and Ile-Ife are the worse of this act of intimidation and disenfranchisement.”

It continued: “Where results of election were announced (not recorded), the figure declared for Oyetola was highly inflated in the affected wards.

“INEC officials were noticeably absent in most of the wards to monitor the election.

“This is unacceptable. It is a shame that a sitting governor could result to malpractices in his desperate bid to secure a second term ticket.

“The Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq led Osun APC Primary Election Committee should know that the primary lacks credibility and fairness.”