One of the aggrieved governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Chief Olusola Oke, is set to dump the party for Action Alliance in order to contest the November 26 governorship election in the state.
Oke decided to dump the party following the upholding of the primary
election result by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC). The
election was won by Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN.
The poll, which was contested on September 3, had been criticized by some of the aspirants, who participated in the exercise.
They alleged that the delegates’ list was manipulated.
The aggrieved aspirants include Oke, Dr. Segun Abraham, who is the
anointed aspirant of the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Ahmed
Tinubu and Senator Ajayi Boroffice.
Though, it was earlier reported that two of the Appeal Committee
members recommended cancellation of the result and only one backed the
upholding of the result, the party has resolved to accept the outcome of
the election.
It was gathered that out of the 11 members of the NWC, six voted for
the cancellation of the result but the national chairman of the party,
Chief John Odigie Oyegun, decided to uphold the result due to some
reasons.
it was learnt that some of the reasons Oyegun dumped the Appeal
Committee’s report was that the committee allegedly did a shady job.
It was gathered that the committee members were queried for only
calling and questioning the petitioners without giving room for the
defendants.
We gathered that the appeal panel failed to invite any member of the
electoral committee, who conducted the primary in Akure in order to ask
the member on what really occurred during the exercise.
Also, the Appeal panel was said to have failed to invite any member
of the NWC, who are custodians of the delegates’ list for interrogation,
since the allegations of the aggrieved members were based on
manipulation of the delegates list.
some members of the Appeal
committee were accused to have been allegedly induced by some leaders of
the party with money to throw out the result.
Those alleged leaders, were said to be behind the movement of Oke to
AA in order to play a spoiler game for the APC in the coming November
26, election in the state.
Already, AA had last week Saturday held its primary election in Akure.
The party presented one Mr. Yinka Orokoto as its candidate for the poll.
Orokoto is one of the loyalists of Oke in APC and a member of his legal team at his chamber in Abuja.
The game was to allow Orokoto to emerge the AA candidate, while he
will step down for Oke if at the end the day, APC refuses to conduct a
fresh election.
A Source in APC said the leaders behind Oke movement to AA have vowed to frustrate the chances of Akeredolu in the poll.
“We all know who is the anointed aspirant of these leaders and since
their aspirant failed, they want to frustrate the chances of APC by
asking Oke to contest in another party so that they will reduce the vote
of Akeredolu.
“They don’t want Akeredolu because they know he won’t be easy for
them to control since these leaders want all the south west governors to
be their puppets.
You remember that was why Governor Olusegun Mimiko fell out with
these leaders and that was why he got massive support from Ondo people
in the 2012 election.
Already, Oke had fixed a political meeting with his loyalists for today in Akure.
This has been confirmed through a statement issued and signed by Oke
Campaign Organisation Director General, Otunba Bola Fisayo, where he
said Oke will decided on his next political movement at the meeting.
The statement reads, “On Sunday the 4th, I spoke to you in regard to
what transpired during the gubernatorial primary election of APC that
was held on Saturday, September 3rd.
“You will recall I called your attention to the irregularities that
characterized the whole exercise, the issue of delegates register was
particularly mentioned. I’m happy you witness reactions of other
aspirants to the issues I raised thereof.
“As democrats, our campaign organization is a stickler of due
process. We therefore approached the APC party designated appeal panel,
with our complains and necessary evidential documents and eventually
capped it with oral presentation at the instance of the panel. It’s on
record that other Aspirants were equally called to either give evidence
or testified.
“Few days ago, appeal panel rounded up their assignment and submitted
their report to the National Working Committee of the party, as
stipulated by the APC constitution.
“The Appeal Committee, in its report, made a recommendation that the
flawed gubernatorial primary election be cancelled and that another
gubernatorial election be rescheduled.
“The national Working Committee met severally since the submission
and rounded up their assignment late yesterday, being September 22, 2016
with a resolution to sustain the recommendation of the appeal
committee, backed by six (6) of the eleven (11) members, but to our
amazement, without consulting anyone nor addressed anyone, some members
of the party Led by the party National Chairman Chief Oyegun, colluded
with Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu and jettison the majority decision of
the National Working Committee by illegally submitted the name of
Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu, to the Independent National Electoral
Commission(INEC) as the official candidate of APC.
“As democrats who believe in the rules of law, we have exercised
enough restraint, by refraining from saying or engaged in anything or
act that might jeopardize the success of our party. Now that it is clear
that justice has now been thrown out through the window, we are
therefore at liberty to think deeply and take necessary step or steps as
our organization would deem it necessary in a free democratic
environment.
“In view of the circumstances enumerated above, our organization will
be meeting with other stakeholders and supporters, and any decision
that would be taking thereof will be communicated to you appropriately.
”I want to thank you for taking your time to be part of this briefing.”
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