Ahead of the bye-election for the vacant seat of the Akoko South-West/North-East federal constituency at the House of Representatives, Ifeoluwa Ehindero, has emerged as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the election.
At the election held at Victory College, Ikare, Ehindero, polling 105 votes, defeated eight other aspirants to win the APC ticket.
Ehindero will be representing the party in the House of Representatives bye election on February 3, 2024. The seat became vacant after Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo was appointed the Minister of Interior by President Bola Tinubu.
Meanwhile, eight of the nine aspirants, who participated in the primary have kicked against the conduct of the primary, saying the process was fraught with irregularities and lacked transparency.
The aspirants who included: Mr Olugbenga Araoyinbo, Haruna Adesina, Dr Muyiwa Olusa, Mr Olanrewaju Kazeem, Bimbo Makinde, Mr Charles Babalola, Wale Owolabi and Lasisi Mohammed, said the outcome of the primary was not acceptable to them.
They argued that the election lacked transparency, reduced trust and challenged the right of the electorate to vote.
They further claimed that the party failed to provide the delegate list before the conduct of the primary, saying none of the aspirants saw the delegates list before the election.
But, the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Mr Abdukadir Nasir declared Mr Ifeoluwa Ehindero as the candidate of the party for Akoko Northeast/Northwest federal constituency the winner having scored 105 votes out of 106 delegates that were cleared for the exercise.
Another aspirant, Makinde, polled one vote.
Ehindero, after being declared winner, said he would give the people representation in order to create a better pedestal for the present and future generations.
He said: “My goal is to influence lives positively, create a greater future for my generation because my generation is a new generation.”
Speaking before the primary, Nasir who was flanked by the APC national officers led by Mr Joy Akang, said they were duly provided with the delegate list, which would be used for the election.
Nasir told the aspirants that his duty was to conduct the primary, and not to query what happened before the exercise and what would take place after the primary.
He advised the aspirants to table their grieviances before the appeal committee which has the mandate to handle all matters arising from the contest.
In his reaction, Araoyinbo alleged that the other aspirants were schemed out and that the delegate list was generated by the party at the local governments without the knowledge of the aspirants contesting in the primary election.
He said: “As you can see we have been here waiting for the officials, waiting to see the list. We have not been able to get it. Not until about 1:47 pm that the party chairman brought it here. We asked them they said the party chairman at the state level gave the list out.
“The way forward is that this election can’t hold. We can’t accept the outcome of an election where we don’t have the delegates list. They just brought the list right now.
“With the conduct of the primary, we will lose the election. One single person wrote the list of delegates from the 23 political wards. There was no level playing ground. We have not seen the list as we speak. This is a charade.This is not acceptable.”
Also, another aspirants explained that the aspirants would have canvassed the delegates if they had been aware of who the delegates were before the conduct of the primary.
He said there was no congress at the ward level to elect the delegates who voted in the election “as of now I don’t know who are the delegates. I saw the Chairman of my Local Government and one other person came in with a paper. I was surprised that they did not conduct any congress.”
But reacting, a state party official, denied all the allegations that one single person generated the list, urging the aggrieved aspirants should approach the appeal committee and stop heating the polity.
He advised them to be a true democrat and join hands with the winner of the primary assuring that the party will win the bye election in the federal constituency.
The Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr Alex Kalejaye said the appeal committee would start sitting in Akure, the State capital to see to the grievances of the aspirants.
Kalejaye urged the aspirants to submit their grievances to the Appeal Panel.
