The Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation wishes to put on record our observations of the show of shame put on display on, Saturday, April 20, 2024, by the election committee for the Ondo state governorship primary election.
It has become very important for us to speak lest the people, party leaders, and the general public are deceived by the Governor, Usman Ododo-led committee that an election was held to select the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo state.
Without any fear of contradiction, we state here that no election was held in any part of Ondo State on Saturday to elect the candidate of the APC. It is on record with incontrovertible evidence that nothing in the semblance of a primary election was held in all the 203 wards in Ondo state. At best, what can be said to have happened was that the committee chairman, Governor Ododo, arrived in the state at about 8 am on Saturday to write the result of an election that was never conducted.
Saturday’s election presented our dear party with a rare opportunity to endear itself to the people of the state. All that was needed was for us to organise an election that would be hailed by all, even the opposition. But we bungled the opportunity with the sham organised by the electoral committee.
The people have eyes and they can see. But on Saturday, they did not see any part of the state where electoral committee members counted the votes as expected. Rather, what they witnessed was a crowd of our enthusiastic supporters who stood in the sun for several hours waiting for the elusive electoral officers to turn up. But we dashed their hopes and expectations of a robust democratic engagement.
It is also noteworthy to state that on Friday, April 19, 2024, the secretary of the committee, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who stood in for Governor Usman Ododo at the stakeholders’ meeting had assured all the aspirants and other stakeholders that all the guidelines put in place to ensure the integrity and smooth conduct of the nomination exercise would be followed to the letter.
But it was not surprising that what Governor Ododo did on Saturday was far distant from what was promised. However, what was surprising was the audacity and the indecent manner the election committee actualised its plot, which was scripted and directed to favour a particular candidate.
For them, a little display of decency by allowing the 203 wards’ election committees to pretend to do their job was a sheer waste of their precious time. Never before in the history of the APC have we witnessed anything close to what was put on display on Saturday.
Saturday’s sham election will probably go down as one of the most controversial primary elections ever conducted by our party. The supportive and hardworking members of the APC were robbed and made to understand or believe that their votes do not count.
While we are still trying to process the shameful manipulation and fraud that attended this election, it remains a huge and difficult task to understand why the electoral committee was in such a hurry to conclude and announce their candidate as the winner.
However, we greet the resilience of our supporters across the 203 electoral wards in the state who forsook their farms, trades, and other matters to queue in the sun till well after 3pm. Be rest assured that your effort is noted and your sweat has not gone in vain.
We, therefore most respectfully appeal to all our supporters to remain calm and peaceful, law-abiding, and conduct themselves most responsibly while we explore legal and democratic ways to register our grievances. We assure you that our principal, Wale Akinterinwa remains absolutely undaunted and deeply committed to the tenets of democracy.
Let the world know that this is not about Wale Akinterinwa. It is our contribution to deepen democracy and for a better life for our people. It is about the future of our state.
Thank you
Ensigned
Segun Ajiboye
Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation
PRESS STATEMENT
APC GOVERNORSHIP PRIMARY ELECTION IN ONDO STATE IS A SHAM
The Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation will like to make its observations known before the whole world is deceived that gubernatorial primary election was conducted today in Ondo state by the All Progressives Congress (APC), as expected.
The truth is that no primary election was conducted. What happened in all the 203 wards in Ondo state can be described as a sham. It defies all descriptions of decency and democratic conduct.
It is our observation that members of the Ododo-led primary election committee, constituted to conduct the nomination exercise, merely simulated active functionality by taking a late “stroll” out of their hotel rooms, where they were dining and wining. The primary election materials were not distributed to the 203 wards across the State, as expected and assured by the election committee.
Members of APC, who are eligible to vote for their preferred aspirants, did not have the opportunity to do so. Many of them queued in the sun till 3:00 pm, waiting for the conduct of the shadow poll.
At another instance, regrettably enough, the election officers that were to conduct the exercise in the wards are known supporters of one of the aspirants. These people were kept in one hotel where they were to perpetrate all sorts of evil, to compromise the process of choosing the candidate of our party.
Virtually all the guidelines put in place to ensure the integrity and smooth conduct of the nomination exercise, reinforced by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who stood in for HE Usman Ododo at the stakeholders’ engagement held on Friday 19th April, 2024, were violated by the election committee.
In a return to the dark days of thuggery in Ondo State, our supporters, and supporters of other aspirants, were beaten, intimidated and chased away from most of the designated voting centres by known political thugs and secret cult members hired by one of the aspirants. This level of violence has turned hospitals to the abode of our supporters and other members of our party.
The ignominious attack of a senior correspondent with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Tayo Ikujuni, by a cabinet member in Ondo State, Saka Yusuf Ogunleye, was symptomatic of the climate of fear and terror visited on innocent but supportive members of APC across the state.
It is instructive that Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ondo State Council, has directed Media Houses and professionals in Ondo State to halt the coverage of the activities of the Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye.
Therefore, we like to state, very categorically, that no primary election was conducted by the APC in Ondo state today, Saturday, 20, 2024. Rather, what happened was shameful, and it constituted a serious dent on the image of our dear party.
We expected that a decent nomination exercise, characterised by peace, freedom of our members to make their choices and fairness, would be conducted. We waited patiently for it, however, what we got was heart-rendering.
We, therefore, appeal to all our supporters across the eighteen local government areas of the state to remain peaceful and calm as we wait further briefing from our members across the state and our principal.
Ojo Oyewamide
Spokesperson, Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation
April 20, 2024.