BOLU-OLU ESHO
The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary was purportedly held in Ondo State penultimate Saturday and Sunday, but the crisis engendered by the manner the poll was conducted may be the beginning of the end of the reign of the party in the state.
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege had on the eve of the primary informed all electoral officers to meet at the election materials distribution centre, which is a hotel in Ijapo Estate in Akure, the state capital, to collect the sensitive electoral materials at 7:00am.
Punctual were the affected electoral officials, they arrived at the venue as early as 6:00am because of the distance some of them would take the materials to.
Around 9:00am, the chairman of the 2024 APC governorship primary committee, Usman Ododo, Governor of Kogi State, arrived at the venue.
The election officials had become curious because the accreditation was slated to kick off at 10:00am as highlighted by the election committee, yet no materials had been distributed at 9:45am.
When eventually the chairman of the election committee stepped out from the hotel, the members of the party who had been waiting to collect the electoral materials accosted him at the foyer of the hotel asking him when the distribution would begin.
To their great shock, Ododo told them that the electoral materials had been distributed, remaining those going to Akure North and Akure South local government areas.
He turned to one of his personal assistants for confirmation and the chap answered in the affirmative.
There was uproar, several questions rendered the air to which the Kogi State governor could not provide answer.
The waiting members of APC asked when the materials were distributed. The governor simply stepped into his waiting armoured SUV and off he went.
One of the aspirants, Olugbenga Edema, raised the alarm that the election had been rigged before it was conducted. Unfortunately, he later discovered that there was no electoral materials anywhere, nor did elections hold anywhere.
In Oba-Ile in Akure North Local Government Area, an Assistant Editor-In-Chief of News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) Tayo Ikujuni, was manhandled and his gadget destroyed by the state Commissioner for Transport, Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye for asking questions when he started counting people in the queue even when electoral materials had not arrived.
There were reports of gunshots in Idanre, Supare and Akure, where people who were suspected to be supporters of other aspirants than the incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa were attacked.
Playing smart, sources disclosed that some members of the group were moving from one polling station to another taking video recordings to deceive those who may ask for proof of election.
A chieftain of the party, who was still in shock, said that what was displayed by the ruling party in the state was unprecedented in terms of self-deceit and impudent imposition.
It’s a known fact that many of the aspirants didn’t vote in their own election in their constituencies.
Olugbenga Edema saw the handwriting on the wall when Ododo declared that the sensitive electoral materials had been distributed at the same distribution centre where some of them got to at dawn.
An observer of the poll, who came from outside the state, simply said: “It would be a great risk to the present and future generations of Ondo State to allow those claiming that there was election on April 20, 2024 to run the affairs of the state.”
A political pundit submitted that “No doubt, the national Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje and his team successfully made merchandise of Ondo APC governorship primary as he deceived many of the aspirants to pay for revalidation of all members of the party.
“He raked in over N400 million from tha exercise alone, because one of the aspirants, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim said he paid over N100 Million to settle the revalidation of his supporters who are members of the party.
“Unfortunately, on the day of the primary, no member’s register was made available for accreditation as there was no election in the state.
“Ganduje and his cohort mopped up N720million from sales of expression of interest and nomination forms from 16 aspirants besides another one whose money dropped in the party’s account hours after closure of sales of form due to poor network from his bank.
“Each of the aspirants paid N50 million, except the two ladies among them who paid N10 million each.
“It’s an outright daylight robbery and Ganduje and all those who executed the purported primary should be made to answer questions from anti-graft agencies in the country, particularly if they are not talking about refund.”
Some newsmen, who travelled outside the state capital, were at a loss when they discovered that the so-called sensitive electoral materials distributed were unable to find their ways to the supposedly polling stations.
According to some of them, members of the party were ready to participate in the primary. They had arrived at the usual polling stations being used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the general elections, but they waited endlessly for the election officials who never arrived.
Some members of the party who spoke with INDEPENDENT disclosed that there was no election in the polling stations, yet results were released from the local government areas claiming that election held
A cursory look at what transpired at the collation centre where the results were announced by the returning officer, Usman Ododo, one of the Electoral officers who was in charge of Ifedore Local Government Area, Chief Oliver Okpala disclosed that he had a close shave with death.
He revealed that the roads were barricaded as members of the party in the local government didn’t allow them access to the towns and villages.
Consequently, Chief Okpala recorded zero for all the aspirants and presented the same as the result of the local government.
When Governor Usman Ododo was announcing the final results, he ignored the incident at Ifedore Local Government and that of Idanre, Akure and Supare and announced Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa as the winner of the purported primary election.
At dawn, he rushed to Abuja to submit the results to the party’s leadership at the national secretariat.
Despite the Governor Abubakar Mohammed-led Primary Election Petition Committee, Ganduje has hurriedly invited the aspirants to Abuja for reconciliation.
This raised the suspicion that the role of the committee has been usurped and whatever its findings might be would not matter.
At the reconciliation meeting, Ganduje was said to have pleaded with all the aspirants who attended the meeting to forget about the past in the interest of the party, asking them to accept the outcome of the purported primary election.
Without wasting time, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim was said to have told Ganduje pointblank that he(Ganduje) has no conscience.
The senator reminded Ganduje that he paid N100 million for members of the party’s revalidation, yet he could not vote. He declared vehemently that nobody could tell him to accept the outcome of an election that was never held.
Another aspirant, Wale Akinterinwa was said to have told everybody present at the meeting that no election took place in Ondo State, revealing that he had drone video evidence to prove that.
He declared without mincing words that he would not accept the outcome of an election that was never held.
As a senior advocate, Chief Olusola Oke, another aspirant, tutored Ganduje on how a primary election should be conducted.
He told Ganduje and the national leadership of the party that “You deviated from your guidelines totally. I am thinking about party members who were violently attacked by thugs that were freely deployed to scuttle the entire process. It is difficult to accept the outcome of an event that never took place.”
Olugbenga Edema, a barrister at Law, in his response to Ganduje’s plea succinctly said: “Mr Chairman, you have 48 hours to redress the injustice. No election ever held in Ondo State.
In his response, another aspirant, Engr. Ife Oyedele said: “Imagine, I couldn’t even vote in my ward. How do you organise an election that almost all the aspirants could not vote? Mr Chairman, what your men did was wrong.”
A professor of Medicine among the aspirants, Faduyile Francis, queried Ganduje, saying “You asked us not to talk about the election. I am a pathologist, on any event, a postmortem is important to ascertain what happens so that we can proffer solutions. No election was held in Ondo State.”
In his response, the incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa in whose favour the purported primary election was recorded, was said to have arrogantly told other aspirants that “I plead with you all to join me. I have not filled out all the available positions because of a day like this. If I had filled all the positions, I would have overrun all of you in the election.”
Jimi Odimayo, Diran Iyantan and Soji Ehinlanwo were said to have reserved their comments.
But Mayowa Akinfolarin, one of the aspirants, who was said to have stepped down for Aiyedatiwa a fortnight before the date fixed for the primary, was said to have accepted the decision of the party at the meeting.
Pundits said that from their findings, there was not an election but rather an allotment of figures in a hotel room by those who were supposed to conduct the election.
Faulting the scores, they wonder how an aspirant whose entire community, including the monarch, professed their support for would score 494 out of the 3097 valid votes in that community.
They also challenged the party’s leadership to produce the membership register they used for the conduct of the acclaimed primary election.
To them, the election of Okitipupa Local Government that was held separately on the following day was just a diversionary tactic to allow them perfect the figures they generated.
Commenting on Akinfolarin’s submission at the reconciliation meeting, pundits observed that the decision of those who made him(Akinfolarin) come second in the purported election is to prepare for the worse in case the party’s leadership resolve to give the ticket to the aspirant that came second so as to retain the ticket in Aiyedatiwa’s camp.
Beyond the controversies surrounding the conduct of the purported primary election, there may likely be a reenactment of the same section of the Electoral Acts that banned Zamfara State APC from participating in a general election a few years ago.
Ondo APC may suffer this same fate because of the party’s penchant for disobeying court verdicts.
One of the aspirants, Olusola Oke, SAN, has boarded the legal train that would take the party to the destination of great loss.
He has reminded the party’s leadership that the National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje lacks the power to superintend on the Ondo State governorship primary on grounds that he had been restrained by a court order obtained from a Kano State High Court from conducting the primary.
Oke in his petition submitted to the Appeal Committee of the party declared that the purported governorship primary election was a nullity in the eye of the law on grounds that in spite of the valid and subsisting court order, Ganduje went ahead to organise, superintend and supervise the purported primary election.
However, irrespective of the arguments of the leadership of the party and claims of Governor Usman Ododo-led Governorship Primary Election Committee Committee, it remains a mystery how the ballot papers for the primary election were distributed and where the figures being flaunted emerged from.
Recall that Dr. Benson Enikuomehin, a chieftain of the APC, legal practitioner and former Special Assistant on Oil and Gas to late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, had warned the leadership of the ruling party to address issues around the primary election in Ondo State or lose the state to opposition.
Enikuomehin who spoke on Arise TV warned the APC of the consequences of not holding a primary election, he said, “A man must be ready to bear the natural consequences of his action. If it doesn’t do it well, it should remember that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not a dead party. It’s standing by to watch the shenanigans and the charades that APC as a party has embarked upon which is why we’re praying that they should quickly rally round and get the things done well if not, we’re on our own.”
On if Olusola Oke and Jimoh Ibrahim would support Aiyedatiwa to succeed if the appeal committee confirms the Governor as duly elected candidate, the former board member of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) said, “Support him what? For an election that was held or a primary that was conducted? You can only build something on something for it to stand. If there was a primary and Aiyedatiwa emerges as winner there will be no problem,” he said.
On if Oke will go to court, he said, “The options are available. Chief Oke appeared before the appeal committee. There’s a principle in law which is principle of rightness and exhaustion. If the possibilities are all exhausted and you’re still not satisfied, then you go for further step in that direction. That decision hasn’t been taken.
“Omo Agege was the secretary of that committee. Governor Usman Ododo wasn’t present on Friday, if he wasn’t present, the secretary was to take charge. Omo Agege said that election materials would be distributed at Vom Hotel in Ijapo and we went there. Unfortunately, there weren’t election materials. Upon what did they come out with result? No election materials, no returning officers? I’m not speaking because of Chief Olusola Oke. I’m a man that stands by my conscience. I’ll say it the way it is, “no election held in Ondo State”. Calling people to join hands with him doesn’t arise. If there were elections, and may be some irregularities exist, we can say, let us understand. But the foundation of the house is already destroyed. What can you build on it?
“We cannot even talk about cancelation because it doesn’t exist. All we’re saying is that the leadership of the party should come and say that these people who participated in making a mockery of us in Ondo State shouldn’t come near when there is going to be a redo of that election. If the party doesn’t do it, I fear for the party. The opposition will take over,” he added.