All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo, on Monday insisted, that the governorship primary election was held in state where the state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, emerged as the party’s governorship candidate.
The Party insisted maintained that the primary of the APC held in the state under the Kogi state, Governor Usman Ododo-led Committee, held a hitch-free governorship primary in the state.
The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Alex Kalejaiye, who made this clarification, described some reports in circulation discrediting the election as false, untrue, shocking, and lacking credibility
However, according to the reports in circulation signed and submitted by individual Electoral Officers to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there were no election materials made available at the polling stations.
In the purported report, the officers claimed that members of the party who came out to perform their civic rights were disappointed as there were no election materials and the election committee which ought to conduct the election failed to show up.
The purported Certified True Copy (CTC) submitted to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, in 10 of the 18 local government councils submitted by officials of the electoral body who monitored the shadow election across the 203 wards of the state stated that there was no election in the state
In the reports submitted by the official for Ifedore Local Council, the report, reads, “The All Progressives Party Primary was scheduled to hold in Ifedore Local Government Area on April 20, 2024. Members of staff were sent from the INEC Office to monitor the primary in each of the 10 wards of the local government area as stipulated by the Electoral Act 2022. There was no agenda provided for the primary in all 10 wards.
“In the 10 wards of the local government area, the APC Electoral Committee required to conduct the primary was not available to conduct the exercise.
“In all 10 wards, the aspirants’ agents displayed the posters of their preferred aspirants, and the party members on the ground in those wards queued behind those agents, showing their support.
“The party members acted violently against the INEC officials in Letters I and II. More so, party members were demanding the INEC officials conduct the primary election for them.
“The election of All Progressives Congress Governorship Primary was not held in person due to the unavailability of the election materials to be used and the absence of the electoral organising committee in all 10 registration areas until the monitoring team left late in the evening.”
In Ilaje Local Government, the report read, “In compliance with the directive of the Commission and as part of INEC’s statutory function to monitor and report political parties primaries elections, Members of staff were deployed to the 12 RA’s that made up the LGA to monitor the primaries. The 12 designated centres across the local government.
“The scheduled primary election was to elect the candidate who will fly the flag of the All Progressive Party as a gubernatorial candidate in the coming governorship election in Ondo State. Copies of the agenda were not provided.
“The party members in the local government all converged at the designated venues to exercise their civic responsibilities. Although INEC monitors were present in all wards for the assignment, the event was characterised by the non-availability of election materials across the 12 RAs in the LGA.
“Collation did not take place at the local government collation as the centre was under lock and key.
“Lists of contestants for the elections in all wards were not given. In view of the above, elections did not take place in Ilaje LGA, and results were not given to the monitors”.
But Kalejaiye insisted that those reports were fake as INEC never confirmed if the reports emanated from the commission and said the circulating reports were designed to cause divisions in the party.
Kalejaiye said; “I want to believe that the documents did not originate from INEC or its agents, because we held a primary that was faultlessfaultless and where we have some hitches, like Ifedore, it was outrightly cancelled.
“Also in Ilaje, the results of some four or five wards were cancelled because there are crises and these are not enough to discredit the primary election in the 18 local government areas of the state”.
He insisted that the primary election was witnessed by the officials of the INEC and the results presented to the officers of the electoral umpire were counter-signed by the INEC officials.
Kalejaiye, however, dismissed the claims of the circulated reports from over ten local government areas of the state and said, the APC in Ondo State has dismissed the report that primary election did not hold in the State.
“For the records, election took place in all the 18 local government areas in the State. There were agitations in Ifedore and Ilaje Local Government areas. While the results in the entire Ifedore Local Government were cancelled, that of Ilaje affected about four Wards, which were also cancelled.
“The essence of such cancellations was to emphasise the validity of the entire process and lend credence to fairness.
“The voting strength of our members in the affected areas were no substantial enough to dent the credibility of the process, nor affect the margin with which the candidate emerged”.
The party, therefore, doubts the authenticity of the report, credited to an agent of the INEC, and cautioned against needless desperation on the part of some members, who have vowed: “to do everything possible to discredit the process”.
The party urged its teeming supporters to discountenance the spurious report and focus on the bigger task ahead: to win the governorship election and retain the Sunshine State for APC.
Meanwhile, officials of the INEC who spoke to Nigerian Tribune did not acknowledge or confirm the authenticity of the documents released to public domain but directed our correspondent to the National office of INEC.
One of the INEC staff told our reporter that, “the documents you’re talking about is a classified document and no one will confirm or deny the authenticity of the documents”.
However, a member of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed that the documents flying around emanated from the petition filed by one of the aggrieved aspirants of the party.
Aiyedatiwa was declared the winner of the primaries by the Chairman of the Primary Election Committee, Ododo, saying Aiyedatiwa polled 48,569 votes to defeat 15 other aspirants.
