EKO HOT BLOG reports that Osun state governor, Gboyega Oyetola, has won the governorship primary on Saturday to emerge the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the July 16 governorship election.
The governor, who is seeking a second term in office, defeated his opponents Moshood Adeoti and Yusuf Lasun to become the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
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Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRasaq who headed the APC Panel that conducted the primary election, while announcing the results around 3 am on Sunday, hailed its peaceful conduct, saying that it was a relief that it all went well despite the picture of war-painted ahead of the exercise.
“I hereby certified that Gboyega Oyetola, having secured the number of highest votes cast at the primary election and having secured all guidelines contained, is hereby declared winner,” he said.
Oyetola was adjudged to have polled 222,169 votes while his closest challenger, Moshood Adeoti, secured 12,921 votes and Yusuf Lasun had just 460.
According to the primary election committee, the total number of accredited voters stood at 247,207 while 235,550 votes were cast.
The primary election was marred by allegations of widespread irregularities while several party members also claimed that their names were expunged from the voters’ register.
Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, who was not available to cast his vote for Adeoti, but claimed to be on official duty had described the exercise as a “sham of an election”.
The minister had asked his supporters not to take laws into their hands, saying his camp will “explore all peaceful and legal means for addressing the matter in order to obtain justice”.
The APC in Osun has two factions: one is loyal to Aregbesola while the other pledges allegiance to Oyetola, the incumbent governor of the state.
Aregbesola’s faction backed Adeoti to pick the governorship ticket but he placed second in the primary.
Pandemonium broke out at Ward 6, Odogbo in Atakunmosa East Local Government Area when suspected political thugs shot a loyalist of Governor Oyetola dead during accreditation for the exercise.
This online media platform gathered that the thugs arrived at the ward in a vehicle branded with the poster of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant, Sanya Omirin, and shot one Job Akinola dead.
An eyewitness named David said the police later took the corpse to the Area Commander’s office.
It was gathered that the police at the venue of the primary election engaged the thugs in a gun battle, forcing them to retreat.
However, Mr. Sanya Omirin denied that his campaign bus was used by thugs during the shooting.
He said: “My boys had nothing to do with the killing. They were merely passing through the area. The murder was committed earlier.”
The spokesperson of Osun State Police Command, Yemisi Opalola, confirmed the killing of a party member at Ward 6, Odogbo.
She said: “The killing was due to rival cult clash and the police are investigating the incident.
“One Bode Itapa stormed the APC accreditation at Ward 6, Odogbo, picked up the victim and shot him dead.
“Police intercepted the suspects and engaged them in a shootout. They escaped into the bush with gunshot injuries.
“They abandoned a PDP branded Nisan Hilux with a Sanya Omirin poster.
“The deceased’s body has been deposited at the Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa.”
A confident Oyetola told reporters soon after casting his vote yesterday that he expected nothing short of victory in the primaries.
His words: “Let me say that the turnout has been meaningful, and I thank God that we were able to do it peacefully.
“All the members of the party have the opportunity to decide who will carry the flag of the party… I happened to be one of the aspirants as well and I don’t expect anything less.
“I want to appeal to all our people all over the state to please maintain peace. This election process should not be a battlefield. It’s should not be a do or die affair. There should be no violence.
“Let everybody have the opportunity of participating in his choice of who should be the candidate of our party. I think that’s the process and I think it has gone very well contrary to speculations.
“I have called a number of places in the state; I think it’s been peaceful conduct of the process.”
Speaking about the absence of agents of other aspirants in some places, he said: “It is their choice not to be at the ward.
“We had the stakeholders meeting yesterday (Friday), we are all expected to have our agents around here.
“Perhaps for whatever reason, they decided not to be part of it. So I’m not bothered at all.
“I’ll win by the grace of God. I want to appeal to all of us to see this issue as a family affair. It’s APC all through.
“We should brace up for the challenge ahead. We are going to face another party in this campaign we don’t know yet.”
Aregbesola who had boasted of victory for his man described the primaries as a sham.
In an open message to his supporters through his media adviser, Sola Fasure, the minister said reports at his disposal on the primaries showed how their (supporters) names were “expunged from the party’s voter register, which was not made available until this morning (Saturday), contrary to the convention of making the list available to the candidates before the election.”
He said the reports also showed how party registration were “being hawked this morning to the supporters of the state governor” and how government functionaries “officiated in the election, how voters were farcically counted in favour of the governor and how the votes recorded for him were more than the number of voters accredited ab initio in many units.”
He said: “We have heard of the absence of result sheets and other vital documents for recording results and vital data. We note also the absence of INEC officials in most wards, casting serious doubt on the credibility of the election.
“We note with shame and much regret the consternation of local and international observers on what they regard as a travesty of an election.”
While urging his supporters to remain calm, Aregbesola said his faction would seek redress legally, restraining them from taking the law into their hands.
“You are urged not to take the law into your hands. Please leave the rest to the Almighty God and let us explore all peaceful and legal means for addressing the matter in order to obtain justice,” he said.
He urged his supporters to maintain their cool and refrain from taking the law into their hands, adding: “Democracy is for the long haul. As you all know, we never tire and we never give up on the cause we believe in.”
Spokesman of his group, Abiodun Agboola, dismissed the primaries as lacking ”credibility and fairness.”
He added: “Verified information from the agents of Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, our governorship aspirant, has it that there are no record and result sheets in any of the 332 wards of the state.
“Loyalists and supporters of Adeoti are being chased and some were brutally attacked in wards where they have a strong presence.
”Oriade, Olorunda, Osogbo, Odo-Otin, Boripe and Ile-Ife are the worst of this act of intimidation and disenfranchisement.
“Where results of the election were announced (not recorded), the figure declared for Oyetola was highly inflated in the affected wards. INEC officials were noticeably absent in most of the wards to monitor the election.
“This is unacceptable. It is a shame that a sitting governor could resort to malpractices in his desperate bid to secure a second term ticket.”
One of the loyalists of Aregbesola at Ward 8, Ifofin, Ilesha East, Saheed Adegoke, confirmed to newsmen that the minister was not in town to vote.
“He told us that he had an assignment from the President,” Adegoke said.
Some women supporters of Aregbesola in Oyan, Odo-Otin Local Government Area protested alleged removal of their names from the voters list.
Similarly, complaints were lodged in Osogbo, Olorunda, Ifelodun, Ilesa, Irepodun local government areas.
Chairman of the Primary Electoral Committee and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq was all joy that the exercise went without violence as widely feared in the run up to it.
He congratulated party members for making it so.
He said: “Let me congratulate the people of Osun State and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC). What is happening here shows that the party is alive and strong. You can see that from the huge turnout.
“If you open the pages of newspapers today (yesterday), what was painted was a picture of war in Osun. But the primary election has been peaceful.
“I congratulate the people of Osun and all the aspirants. They have all done well.”
A chieftain of the party and former Deputy Governor of the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore, urged aspirants in the primaries to accept the results in good faith.
Omisore, who spoke after voting at his Ife East Moore Ward, Ile-Ife described the exercise as a family affair that was transparent enough “and will satisfy the voters as well.”
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