Osun 2018: APC Aspirants Allege Party Leaders of Manipulation Moves Ahead of Primary Election

Some Governorship Aspirants in the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the September 22nd Governorship Election in Osun State have accused the party leadership of scuttling due process and trying to impose the unpopular direct primary process on the party for the July 19 Primaries.

Prince Gboyega Famodun, Chairman, Osun APC

The aspirants alleged that the hatchet plan conceived by 3 out of the 26 members of the State Working Committee of the party without resort to others was to favour a particular aspirant whose ambition might end with the popular delegate system.

The aspirants whose course is championed by a group called Coalition of aspirants in the state in a statement signed by their spokesperson, Alhaji Kelani Abdulazeez and made available to CityMirrorNews in Osogbo, accused Prince Gboyega Famodun, the State Chairman, Hon Razak Salinsile, State Secretary and Hon Segun Olanibi of mortgaging the interest of over 350, 000 party men and women across the state with the decision.

According to the statement, “Their plan which was in connivance with some members of the cabinet of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is believed to have the blessing of the Governor himself. For some weeks now, there have been so much agitation from some members of Ogbeni’s cabinet and his social media handlers for the adoption of Option A4 or Direct primary for the selection of Osun APC flag bearer in the primary election earlier scheduled for Saturday July 7th.

“They resorted to this unpopular move after several paid opinion polls organized for them shows that against their wish, Alh Moshood Adeoti the Secretary to the State Government and one of the almost thirty contestants will win any delegate Election hands down.

“To compound their worries was their finding that even if Direct primary was organized in a free,fair,transparent and credible process, Alh Adeoti will garner nothing less than 70% of the votes. Faced with this stark reality, the three musketeers (Famodun,Salinsile and Olanibi) went to work by evolving ways of manipulating the membership register of the party across the thirty local governments and Area office”.

The statement also alleged that the group resulted to removal of names of registered party members from the 2014 Membership register, insertion of several fake names into the register, printing of APC membership slips from Lagos all in a bid to foist an aspirant over others.

It also stated that in 2014 during the registration of members into the newly formed APC, the membership slips distributed in all South West states were printed in Lagos. Even at a stage when membership slips were in short circulation in Osun, some of those customized for Lagos state were brought in to make up for the shortfall.

Alhaji Abdulazeez in the statement maintained that “To ensure the maximum use of the Membership slips being printed, part of their plan is to import several people from Lagos and Oyo state and hand over the slips to them for use during the Direct primary.

“They also plan to involve twenty two (22) staff of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the process. The twenty two INEC personnel are expected to work with the team to be sent from the APC National Secretariat while staffs of Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) will serve as Adhoc staff.”

“To give full proof backing to the plan, the Famodun led musketeers are also planning to mobilize all Council Chairmen and Councillors for use in harassing and intimidating hapless party members into doing their bidding by force. To ensure this is achieved, threats of forceful removal are being passed to these Councillors and Chairmen on daily basis. Money and violence are not left out of these plans of theirs and this was the reason for the confidence they have been exhibiting in their ability to succeed with their plan at all cost.”

The Coalition said in the statement that The recent decision of the newly constituted National Working Committee (NWC) under the headship of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to stick to the widely successful practice of delegates primary at its maiden meeting on Wednesday has since challenged the plan with the 3 individuals looking for other means to coerce the party leaders to doing their bidding.

When contacted, the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of Osun APC, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi, denied the report saying it is not true.

Oyatomi said that primary election that would involve about 5,625 delegates cannot be manipulated stressing the assurance of the party leadership to midwife a free and fair process.

He said further that the exercise would be carried out by national officers who would be fair to all sides.