…Blame Goves Who Impose Candidates For Party Crisis

AT least 25 aspirants who participated in the just-concluded House of Representatives primaries in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State have sought fresh primaries to choose candidates for next year’s election.

An aspirant for the Ilaje/Ese-Odo federal constituency, Prince Monday Akinyomi, who spoke on behalf of others, said there was no primary in any part of the state that the National Working Committee (NWC) could rely on to produce candidates for the party in the next elections.

Akinyomi said there were different results from different venues of the primaries conducted in the state, prompting various aspirants to claim victories in the just-concluded primaries.

He said there was no valid result for the national leadership of the party to determine the authentic candidate of the party in the state.

Speaking with reporters in Akure, the state capital, Akinyomi blamed the leadership of the party in the state for trying to impose their anointed candidates on the party under the pretext of consensus arrangements within the state.

According to him, “What I saw was not expected. I expected to witness a free and fair election where the people would decide who would represent them in the forthcoming election. That was my expectation, but to be honest with you, what I witnessed that day was nothing to write home about.

“To put it straight, there were no elections. If someone tells you we had an election on that day, on the 16th of May, maybe that person is living on another planet.

“But as far as I am concerned, as an aspirant who has a lot of followers and supporters, we were disappointed to see that, first, there was no clear venue for the election.

“We didn’t know where the election would be held. The planned election actually took place in two locations, where some people were jubilating while the other part was also jubilating. So there were no elections.”

Akinyomi said there were no representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and party officials from Abuja at the collation centres. He said the results were announced without voting and collation in his constituency.

He said, “I went to the venue where we thought there would be a collation centre, but there was no presence of INEC, no presence of party officials either from Abuja or Akure. No one was talking to anyone. People just gathered there. Within the next few minutes, I saw the declared winners.

“So we were blindfolded and told the election was going on in another place. We were all there at the same time. People were just there. So there were no elections as far as I am concerned.

“If people claim there was an election, they should bring out the officials. Who were the INEC officials? Who were the party officials actually designated to conduct such elections?

“Winners were not announced at that place because there were no elections. It was later that we saw on social media, where they said a certain number of votes were assigned to some people. I think they said in my own ward that I came second in that election, which I never participated in. I did not know who counted it.

“So there were no winners announced as far as that day was concerned. Later on, we started seeing some figures coming from Facebook and social media.”

Akinyomi said it was wrong to disenfranchise the electorate during the primary, and the best way to assuage their grievances is for the leadership of the party to order a fresh primary and not to declare anyone as the winner.

He said,” ‎I am not demanding that anyone should be declared a winner because there were no elections. I am demanding cancellation and that the election should be conducted properly as laid down by the electoral reforms.

“That is my single demand. You cannot ask for a result to be declared when there was nothing to declare. What they declared was just something that never happened. The election should be conducted.

“We could conduct an election within three hours. The kangaroo election was conducted in under 10 minutes. So if they could do a kangaroo election in under 10 minutes, I presume we could do a proper election within two or three hours before the deadline.

“If we don’t do it, I think we are simply telling people that no matter what their interest is, they can keep it in their houses and that they do not have the right to exercise it. That is not good for our democracy.

“We are still nurturing our democracy. We want people to be fully involved and participate in it. When you do this, it creates a barrier for genuine people who want to participate in the electoral process.”

Akinyomi said some governors who wanted to impose their anointed candidates against the wishes of the majority of the party members were the ones pushing for the removal of the National Chairman of the APC, Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda.