Former Special Special Assistant on Oil and Gas to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and a former board member of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Benson Enikuomehin in this interview, speaks on the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in Ondo State, why the party should not accept the outcome and the need for a fresh exercise, among other issues.
What do you think happened during the Ondo State governorship primary election of the APC?
When a man takes oath of office, he says I say this on honour or he carries the Bible or Quran and he swears an oath. I am not going to swear an oath but I will tell you point blank what happened at the event in Ondo State on April 20 because I was on ground. On Friday, April 19, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege in the evening time called all the aspirants and told them that by tomorrow morning, Saturday April 20, materials meant for the election would be distributed at VON Hotel and that everybody should be present by 7 o’clock at 6:30 am.
Agents of virtually all the aspirants were present. One of the aspirants was also present in the person of Hon. Gbanga Edama. From 6:30 am till almost 9:30 am, there was nothing that was going on and everybody was asking about the materials we would use for this election. But there was none. It was thereafter that the governor of Kogi State came and he was asked: Sir, you are the chairman of this election committee, we would need materials for this election, where are the materials?
He told the people who were present that the materials had been distributed as early as 6:30am in the morning. Who distributed the materials and to which place? These materials are meant for 18 local governments, how did they fly out from this place? Omo-Agege told us to come by 7.am; now we came by 6:30 am and you are saying that the materials have been distributed. And I tell you for free, the truth of the matter is that materials for the primary election in Ondo State were never seen.
You just have to be in the spirit to see the materials but there was no material distributed. Persons who were to be returning officers, who should be in the various wards, none existed. I was in Ondo South, I am an Ilaje man and I was to go and participate. As we went from one place to the other, we discovered that people were just shouting that they needed the materials. As at 11:30am, the materials were not distributed but we reliably gathered that these persons who were supposed to be electoral officers and manage the affairs of the party in the local governments were all in Akure.
What they were doing, only God knows but at the end of the day, they turned out results. The truth of the matter is this, the party guidelines provides for a procedure that must be followed. In this kind of primary, and if a people have made unto themselves a procedure to be followed, it would be antithetical for them to go backwards and do otherwise. So, the guideline for this 2024 primary election was provided by the party. I plead with you sir if I may read what the procedure is all about.
Article 23 says the ward electoral officers shall take delivery from the local government election committee of the following electoral materials for the election (a) register of the members of the ward (b) APC official result form for the ward. So, if at the state level, these materials were not available, what would we use? Can we build something on nothing and expect it to stand? Would you multiply zero by five million and then you will get fifty million, it will be zero. So, there were no election materials; there were no individuals who came to say we are the officers who will manage this. I challenge anyone to show to the whole world where this material was distributed at VON Hotel. If it was done, I will apologize.
What big challenge does the party have in organising free and fair primary elections because we saw what happened in Edo State? Can you confirm what happened in Ifedore Local Government Area, where there was report of shooting and violence although Governor Usman Ododo said the exercise was peaceful and went ahead to declare the result of that election?
You can only give what you have. If you don’t have something you can’t give it out. With the greatest respect to the governor of Kogi State, I am shocked, and this is beyond any human comprehension that he would come out and say the election was free, fair and credible. The governor should have some conscience when he talks in this form. I am from that state, he came into VON Hotel at past nine, and for you to conduct the election, you must have the membership register which you would distribute and the materials to be used.
This is ridiculous. And in all honesty and all sincerity, at least I know my ward. The governor of Ondo State and I are from the same ward. We vote in the same ward. No materials were supplied to the ward and the governor was not even allowed to come to his ward to vote. If there were no election, there were no materials to be used, how dare you go ahead to declare victory?
On Ifedore, Dr. Adenusi Obe, was the former chairman of that local government, he spoke to me and confirmed in all sincerity that there were no voting in the 10 wards in Ifedore. We raised this alarm earlier that the team of the governor was planning to have 50 persons per ward who would unleash crisis once they found out that they were not going to succeed. But they came and said they only held a meeting in Akure to plan their logistics but it has come out.
It is not only in Ifedore; in Idanre Local Government, the same thing happened. The challenge was terrible. In Akure, it was the same but in Ondo South, materials did not come at all because none was distributed. So, what happened was an allocation of results. I read on social media, I don’t know whether they will confirm it that Hon. Mayowa Akinfolarin was said to have scored about 15,000 votes. Akinfolarin withdrew from the race and said he had subsumed his interest for the governor. How would you be allocating results to him?
When did he withdraw from the race?
He withdrew a day before the election and he still got over 15,000 votes and then defeated Chief Olusola Oke who had been on the ground and gone around the state.
In all fairness, who is your candidate in this contest?
In all honesty and I must be very frank with you, I prefer and I will say it without equivocation that Chief Olusola Oke is my preferred aspirant and I will work for him anytime any day.
With all of the things you said, did the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) monitor this election?
The various INEC officers that came were just looking at us because there was no primary election. I won’t talk about the stage-managed one that I saw in Ondo because there is a process of conducting the election. You must accredit the people who are going to vote and the voters register will be ticked. Let them provide the party register where they ticked members that were accredited.
Are you saying this because you feel it was not done properly or because Olusola Oke did not win?
When Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa was to be deprived of his right of succeeding Governor Rotimi Akeredolu as the deputy governor and by law, no other person is qualified to be so, I was everywhere and I said that by law it is his right. As soon as he became the governor, the whole state agreed that Ondo South should produce the governor for eight years. Now, if he as governor would want to contest, by the provision of section 182 sub-section 3, he is forbidden from doing two terms.
The law is that if you have taken over from a former person who is governor after you complete his term, you can only run one more term. Now if he is to contest for this, he will only run for four years. Ondo Central under Olusegun Mimiko had eight years, Ondo North under Rotimi Akeredolu had seven years but for his death, he would have completed his eight years. So, when it comes to the Ondo South, we are to have our eight years.
Olusola Oke can be, Jimoh Ibrahim can be and any other person can be for eight years but not this governor. You can’t tell me that the work he will do in four years will be the same as the work he will do in eight years. Where will he get the resources from?
Governor Aiyedatiwa has called on the other persons who participated in the primary to support him. Are you saying that because of the circumstances of zoning and tenure, which you have explained, we are likely to have a situation whereby Chief Oke and Senator Ibrahim will not support Aiyedatiwa?
Support you for 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 election in the state and Governor Aiyedatiwa came first, it would be a different story. I don’t know whether Chief Oke will go to court to challenge the exercise but options are available for him. At least Chief Oke appeared before the Appeal Committee.
The man who oversaw the process for the party is Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State but you mentioned only Senator Ovie Omo-Agege. I was wondering why Senator Ovie Omo-Agege when the election from the party was overseen by Governor Ododo.
Ovie Omo-Agege is the secretary of that committee and Governor Ododo was not present on Friday when Omo-Agege told us to come for election materials distribution by 7.am on Saturday. And we all went there and there were no election materials. They came out with results because there were no election materials and no returning officials.
It is not because of Chief Oke, I’m a man who stands by my conscience and I will say it the way it is. There was no primary election held in Ondo State. If there was an election and voters participated and maybe some irregularities, we will say let’s understand. But the foundation of the house is already destroyed, what can you build on it?
So, you want the conduct of another primary election?
We don’t even talk about cancellation because it didn’t exist. So, all we say is that the party’s leadership should come together and say that the kind of persons who participated in making a mockery of us in Ondo State should not come near the election when there is going to be a redo of that particular election. If the party does not do it, I fear because there are going to be consequences.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not a dead party; it is standing by to watch the shenanigans that APC has embarked upon. That is why we are praying that they should quickly come around and get the thing done well, if not we are on our own.