BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The already crisis-ridden All Progressives Congress in Osun State has opened fresh wounds in the hearts of members of the party over the controversial conduct of the primary elections ahead of the 2023 general elections into the State House of Assembly and the National Assembly.
About three weeks after the conduct of the primaries, neither the party leadership nor the election committee had deemed it fit to officially release results to aspirants and other members of the party. No fewer than 87 aspirants had obtained forms to contest the State House of Assembly primary election to fill the 26 seats. An undisclosed number of aspirants in the state had also obtained forms to contest various seats in the National Assembly.
The party had opted for direct primary which enabled all party members holding valid membership cards to vote for the aspirants of their choice at each ward’s collation centre of the 332 wards in the state. The State Assembly primary was held on Thursday, last week. Recently, the House of Representatives primary was held while that of the Senatorial took place on Saturday last week. At the time of this report, official results of the elections were still being awaited.
The inability of the party to disclose results of elections has caused confusion among aspirants and their supporters as conflicting results emerge on social media, apportioning victories and defeats to different aspirants. While some supporters have been congratulating their aspirants on their victories in the exercise based on the social media results, others have been alleging rigging and manipulation by leaders of the party.
Non-release of the results has brought about bickerings on social media by supporters of aspirants, especially those who were allegedly defeated in the contest. Some aspirants have taken to their social media handles to announce themselves winners and also posted unofficial results to back their claims.
One of the members of the ruling party in the state wrote on his Facebook page, “The Ijesa North (Federal Constituency) is the funniest. When the committee did not announce anyone, everyone was just announcing himself. Now, all the four candidates have declared themselves winners. But the truth is that reconciliation is ongoing. They will settle soon.”
There had been pockets of protests by aggrieved aspirants and other concerned members of the party over the process. The first protest occurred on the night of the House of Representatives primary as some aggrieved members of the party stormed the residence of the party chairman, Gboyega Famodun, in Osogbo and alleged manipulation of election results for Ila/Ifedayo/Boluwaduro Federal Constituency.
There was pandemonium at the scene of the demonstration as policemen dispersed protesters with teargas. It was gathered that a House of Representatives aspirant, Ismail Kolawole, from the Ila federal constituency led the protest.
“May we note that with the high level of impunity and manipulations involved in the process and shenanigans engaged to get rid of us, the joke has now turned on Governor Oyetola’s group, as all its aspirants in various constituencies are laying claims to victory and confirming it with concocted figures aimed to suite their fraud”
The protesters accused the party of rigging the primary election in favour of immediate past Commissioner for Tourism and Culture, Adebisi Obawale, who was declared the winner after Kolawole had allegedly won the primary.
The protesters threatened to leave the party if the party fails to address the matter and declare Kolawole the winner of the primary election. Many other aggrieved members of the party have continued to cry foul over the recent conduct of the primary elections in the state.
Also, supporters of an aspirant for Osogbo Federal Constituency, Abosede Ogo-Oluwa, stormed Government House, GRA Oke-Fia, Osogbo recently and demanded that the result of the primary election conducted last week be declared by the committee.
They posited that continuous delay in the announcement of the results as and when due may lead to manipulation. Speaking, Ajadi Olohuntosin from Osogbo Local Government, wondered why the committee saddled with the responsibility of conducting the election would delay the announcement of the results, appealing to them to do the needful as the people of the constituency had waited enough to hear the official announcement.
Displeased by the further delay, the National and State House of Assemblies aspirants under the factional platform of the party have described the primary elections as a sham and asked the national leadership of the party to out rightly cancel the exercises.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, twelve aspirants alleged the state governor, Gboyega Oyetola and other leaders of the mainstream party of impunity, charade, confusion and manipulation of the primaries.
The aggrieved aspirants, who are under a group in the party loyal to a former governor of the state and current Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the Osun Progressives (TOP), titled their speech, “A Rape of Democracy by Governor Gboyega Oyetola and His Collaborators,” said they participated in the screening conducted by the party and that they were cleared to take part in the primary elections.
“On behalf of other aspirants to the State House of Assembly and National Assembly positions, and the leadership of the authentic progressive’s platform, we wish to bring to the fore, indeed the attention of the whole world, the charade and sham that Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and his ilk called primary elections in the state. An autocratic and dictatorial regime couldn’t do worse in dragging democracy on the floor than what Governor Oyetola and his collaborators have done on the House of Assembly and National Assembly Primaries of our party. The late dark goggle general didn’t bring as much odium to democracy as Governor Oyetola.
“May we note that with the high level of impunity and manipulations involved in the process and shenanigans engaged to get rid of us, the joke has now turned on Governor Oyetola’s group, as all its aspirants in various constituencies are laying claims to victory and confirming it with concocted figures aimed to suite their fraud. It is unheard of, even a shameful experience, that four and three days after the primaries have been held, the Governor and his collaborators in the party are unable to declare the winner of the contests. In practical terms, the reason espoused for the existence of our tendency, the reformation of Osun APC, couldn’t have been better brought to the fore than the present show of shame. It is obvious that the Osun APC is rudderless and lacks needed discipline which can only exist where the leadership is forthright, upright and seasoned.
“The information at our disposal is that all the results sheets are currently in the custody of Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the results sheets are being filled with the names of the Governor’s cronies who never won the primary elections, hence the need for this conference.
“Therefore, we call on His Excellency, the National Chairman of our party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu to use his good office to correct the current act of impunity and rape of democracy being displayed by Governor Gboyega Oyetola before it is too late. We, therefore demand the cancellation of the primaries, while fresh elections should be conducted,” the address delivered on behalf of other aspirants by Hon. Waseeu Adebayo, a two-term House of Assembly member from Olorunda State Constituency, read.
There was confusion at the Oke-Fia Government House, Osogbo, on Tuesday as many members of the party stormed the abode of the governor to protest the alleged manipulation of primary elections results in favour of some aspirants by the leadership of the party in the state.
The members of the party who were party delegates from the 31 local government areas of the state, were summoned into the government house as earlier as 8.00am in anticipation that the outcome of the election results would be announced.
However, their expectations were dashed. Instead of the announcement at the banquet hall, they alleged that their party leadership asked them to sign blank results sheets.
This development infuriated the about 500 delegates who were in attendance at the meeting and they threw decorum into the wind to register their grievances to the move they described as undemocratic.
According to one of them who preferred anonymity, they were shocked when “they were ordered to sign documents, which they supposedly told them to be the results sheets, but no names were on it.”
When asked whether they know their mission of being invited for the meeting, they stated that “the purpose of the meeting was not stated in the messages sent to them by the party hierarchy. We were only asked to show up at the government house.”
The meeting had the presence of the State party Chairman, Gboyega Famodun, the Senate spokesperson and Director General of Oyetola campaign council, Dr Ajibola Basiru, a former member of the House of Representatives, Ajibola Famurewa and special Adviser to Oyetola on political affairs, Sunday Akere; among others, saw the party members frowning at the development.
The delegates who refused to sign the documents until they know the names of winners to sign for in the blank result sheets said they suspected foul play and maintained that they cannot sign a blank document as they perceived the leadership of the party wanted to manipulate the outcome of the exercise by replacing winners of the election for losers.
They however charged them to announce the authentic results of the elections as the exercise was fairly and freely conducted.
According to one of the protesters, “delegates did not vote. It was the direct primaries. Why ask us to sign results sheets? They are thieves. They want to manipulate the results and we will continue to resist that. The choice of the people should be announced. We can’t sign blank results,” one of the delegates from Ila local government said.
The protesters thereafter called on the national leadership of the party to prevail on the party leaders in the state to disregard manipulating and forging results they might have presented to them for ratification.
It would be recalled that in Obokun and Oriade Local Government Area, the leading candidates for the APC House of Representatives primaries, Thomas Ogungbangbe, Professor Andrew Akinmoladun and Dr. Desmond Ojumu (and 2 others) were in a battle to win the tickets. According to reports, all indications pointed to Ogungbagbe being the favourite to win the primary. However, as voting ended, supporters of the candidate and other party members began to suspect that all was not well. It turned out that the electoral officer at the LGA was initially warned not to announce a winner until he received instructions from above.
“The consequence of this was much tension within the community with allegations that certain forces within the party wanted to impose Professor Akinmoladun as the winner. Furthermore, other aggrieved parties are now asserting that there is another plot to impose a third candidate, Dr. Ojumu as the flag bearer, when another candidate may have won. All this, with various allegations and recorded testimonies of irregularities concerning the primaries and an ongoing attempt to subvert the will of the people,” a chieftain of the party said on condition of anonymity.
At the state level, the Secretary of the Congress Committee set up by APC in the state to support the national secretariat in conducting the primary, Sunday Akere, tried to calm frayed nerves by saying that, “the results will be announced soon.” This did not do much to allay the fears of supporters of Ogungbagbe, who till this moment, continue to assert that the results are being delayed in order to favour another candidate even though theirs was clearly leading the race. To date there is no official list of the winners of the APC primaries from the 332 wards in the state.
“If the allegations of attempted imposition of candidates by the APC power structure Osun State are true, then it is indeed an act of impunity and total disregard for democratic principles in the conduct of the primaries in the State. Party primaries are meant to represent the wishes of the people at the local level to choose elected representatives for the benefit of their community. However, what we are witnessing is the kind of trend that causes people to lose faith in a system that is supposed to represent their interests at the national level. For outside observers seeing what is happening in Osun State, it would be hard to take the internal democratic process within the APC serious, with a wider implication on the APC-led federal government.
“It is unheard of, and even a shameful experience, that after many days after the primaries have been held, the leaders in the party are unable to declare the winners in the contests”
“It is critical that the Osun APC deal conscientiously on the issue of the yet-to-be-announced primary results. In the event that they are unable to do so because of vested interests by certain powerful elements within the State APC, the National Working Committee will need to step in to establish a sense of probity and justice in the system. A situation where one person who was, by all accounts, winning an election, but is suddenly announced to have lost, may bring about retribution on the party by aggrieved individuals,” the party chieftain noted.
Indeed, while voicing the grievances of some aspirants, a two-term state lawmaker, Hon Adeboye said: “It is unheard of, and even a shameful experience, that after many days after the primaries have been held, the leaders in the party are unable to declare the winners in the contests.” He then called on the national chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu to step in and correct the anomaly.
Meanwhile, Special adviser to governor Gboyega Oyetola, Hon. Sunday Akere in an interview said nobody presented the delegates with blank documents to sign, adding that they were only invited to come and ratify the results which some of them were ready to do but were disturbed to do so by those who perceived their chances were not auspicious in the exercise.
“We thought we should do it at the government house to make it easier and faster but, when we saw the development, they had to be referred to their various constituencies for the ratifications,” he said adding that it was too early for aggrieved aspirants to protest and they should wait for the final announcement by the committee.
Also speaking on a radio programme monitored by our correspondent in Osogbo, the Commissioner for Works and Transport in the state, Remi Omowaiye said the party leadership would make the results of the primary elections public at the appropriate time.
He said, “What gives you the impression that the party had not announced the winner? If we decide as a party that we will want to make it known to the press, that’s the decision of the party but you can’t be too sure that the party had not made its decision. The primaries had been held, results had been collated, winners had emerged and at appropriate time, the party leadership would make the results known to the public if they want to do that.”
The July 16 governorship election in the state would soon hold, political watchers have said that the crisis already generated over the primary elections was capable of affecting the chances of Governor Oyetola in the poll as aggrieved members have not hidden their pain.
