By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
State and National Assembly aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State have jointly called for the cancellation of the legislative primary elections of the party.
The aspirants described as a sham the primary election held statewide on Friday, May 27, 2022.
The aspirants, including ten House of Assembly and two House of Representatives aspirants, accused Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of impunity and total disregard for democratic principles in the conduct of the primaries.
The aspirants said the direct primaries was conducted without any election material or party documents like membership register and result sheets, among others.
The aspirants include; Waseeu Gbola Adebayo (Olorunda State Constituency), Owoade Ademola Adeyemi (Irewole/Isokan State Constituency), Wahab Kazeem Olanrewaju (Ifelodun State Constituency), Babalola Iqmal Opeyemi (Ede South State Constituency) and Kolawole Olalere Victor (Ilesa East State Constituency
Others are; Adesola Arawole Adegbite (Odo-Otin State Constituency), Olaoye Abdulhakeem (Osogbo State Constituency), Olaniyi Shariat Olanike (Ayedaade State Constituency), Kasali Nurudeen Adelaja (Iwo State Constituency), Opadola Abdullahi Amobi (Olaoluwa State Constituency), Komolafe Akinlabi Richard (Ijesha-South Federal Constituency) and Ibrahim Oyekunle (Ayedaade/Irewole/Isokan Federal Constituency).
Addressing a press conference on Monday, the aspirants said results of the primaries were not announced at the various ward and local government collation centres by the factional APC Ward Chairmen who were appointed as Collation Officers by Oyetola.
They claimed the result sheet of each of the State and Federal constituencies were kept in the Government House where the ‘Governor’s people’ were allocating figures to their preferred aspirants.
According to the aspirants, the failure of the party leadership to declare a winner of the State House of Assembly and Federal House of Representatives primaries in each constituency was a result of the fraud and manipulation of the results as directed by the Governor.
The Osun APC House and National Assembly primary elections have been marred with protests and allegations of imposition by members.
Though the election was held on Friday, the results have not been released by the Osun State Secretariat of the party.
Many aspirants also have taken to social media to announce their victory in the polls.
