AbdulRazak says he is pleased with conduct of Osun APC primary as factional group of the party condemns process

By Richard Akintade, Osogbo

Chairman, Osun State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazak, has lauded the peaceful conduct of the ongoing election exercise.

The Kwara Governor thanked APC members for the huge turnout and their peaceful conduct.

He said happenings had contradicted the expectations of many over the exercise.

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AbdulRazak spoke with newsmen after monitoring the primary in Iragbiji, the hometown of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

He said: “Let me congratulate the people of Osun State and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC). What is happening here shows that the party is alive and strong. You can see that from the large turnout.

“If you open the pages of newspapers today, what was painted was a picture of the war in Osun. But the primaries election has been peaceful. I congratulate the people of Osun and all the aspirants. They have all done well.”

Meanwhile, a factional group of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun has informed the public and Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq-led Osun APC Primary Election Committee of the irregularities in the conduct of the primary election of the party in the state.

The party in a press statement in Osogbo by its Publicity Secretary, Abiodun Agboola strongly condemned the conduct of the primary election because “it is nothing but a sham with a fraudulent process to favour Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.”

The statement said, “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 was no proper accreditation in a majority of the ward collation centres where voting took place. The accreditation done in some places was 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 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 on Friday, February 18, 2022, at the stakeholders’ meeting with the Primary Committee.

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

“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.”