Less than 24 hours to the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Ondo State, the factional Chairman of the party in the state, Henry Olatuja on Sunday says aspirants have not been briefed on the venue to be used for the exercise.
Olatuja who disclosed this in Akure, the Ondo State capital emphasized that 11 out of the 12 aspirants on his side were yet to have access to the delegates’ list meant for Monday’s exercise.
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While emphasizing that the party is factionalized in the state, Olatuja decried the decision by the leadership of the party to adopt indirect mode of primaries as against the clamour for a direct version by most of the aspirants.
He warned that the decision was a recipe for post-primary election crisis.
Olatuja also alleged that the delegates’ list must have been altered to favour the incumbent governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
He, however, said that the 11 aspirants on his side will not boycott the election.
“As at the moment, we have not heard any information on how the exercise will go. The venue has not been agreed upon. The list of delegates that will participate in the primaries has not been made available to the aspirants.
“The question is which list of delegates will they use for the primaries and who generated the list. We have our own list across the state as well as the list of executives that emanated from congress. With two factions of the party in the state, which of the executives is authentic.
While stating that the Ade Adetimehin-led executives of the party in the state is illegal, Olatuja alleged that Adetimehin is projecting the governor as the sole candidate.
Olatuja also alleged that according to rumours, the Governor of Kogi State, Yaya Bello who will superintend over the primaries have been told to return the incumbent at all cost, hence the reason why the delegates’ list is was yet to be released.
“The last primary we did here in 2016, the then Chairman, Chief John Oyegun was a terrible chairman like what is happening now. He released three sets of delegates’ lists within five days. He did different alterations and manipulations of the lists. Even if you want to manipulate a list, give it to aspirants and let have fair opportunities at the primaries.”
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK