The first runners up in the All
Progressive Congress (APC) governorship primary in Ondo State, Dr Olusegun
Abraham, said, yesterday, that the party may lose the November 26 election if
the truth is subverted on its choice of candidate. Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, who won
the primary, beating Abraham with 34 votes, was declared the party’s candidate
by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party.
But two other aspirants, Chief
Olusola Oke and Ajayi Boroffice, together with Abraham rejected the choice of
Akeredolu. They lambasted the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun for his “undemocratic behavior in over-ruling the report of the
Appeal Committee which ordered for fresh primary”.
Abraham, in a statement in Akure by
his media aide, Sayo Aluko, said: “We can’t win the main election by subverting
the truth, especially not among the kind of Ondo people who relentlessly
dislike injustice. “We must not play into the hand of the opposition, who have
been seemingly empowered in the little time our primary election has remained
inconclusive” . Abraham, who said he would not defect to another party because
of the injustice, described Oyegun’s move as “inexplicably unexpected,
unjustifiable and unacceptable”.
He claimed that he is the “winner of
the election on the count of voiding the ineligible/padded votes and rightfully
re-enfranchising the disenfranchised votes”. The aspirant said he has
“carefully weighed constitutional means” to “seek redress and reclaim his
mandate”. “Our petition noted that 157 fake delegates were injected into the
delegates’ list in 12 of the 18 local governments areas (LGAs).
“This includes 54 delegates loyal to
our mandate in at least three LGAs of Akoko North West (13), Akoko North East
(26) and Idanre (15), who were disenfranchised and substituted with fake
delegates. “We have sought that these disenfranchised votes should be added to
my poll (635), after the fake and substituted ones have been removed from votes
polled by the acclaimed beneficiary.
“It is on these two tenable fronts,
that is, the NWC’s verdict of an annulment and rerun, but, more importantly,
the reconsideration, re-enfranchising, recount and rightful allotting of the
amount of eligible delegates’ votes, that I seek a reclamation of my mandate to
be declared as the flag bearer of our party in the forthcoming general election
in Ondo State”.
Source:Vanguard Newspaper
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Politics