OSUN GOV POLL: Aspirants cry foul as APC picks candidate

Governorship aspirants of the Osun State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday faulted the election of the Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, as the candidate of the party for the September 22 governorship election in the state.

The primary election saw Oyetola, from Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area of the state garnering a total of 127,017 votes to emerge winner.

He defeated the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Lasun Yusuf; the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Dr. Najeem Salam; Mr. Kunle Adegoke; Mr. Saka Layonu (SAN), and other contestants.

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, acted as the chairman of the APC Governorship Primary Election Panel. He announced Oyetola winner of the election on Friday night.

Before the election started, some of the aspirants had announced their withdrawal from the process over the insistence of the party to adopt a direct primary, where supporters queue behind the agents of their preferred aspirants.

Among those who withdrew from the election were the senator representing the Osun East Senatorial District, Babajide Omoworare; Secretary to the Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti; and the chairman of the Osun State Local Government Service Commission, Mr. Peter Babalola.

Adeoti had said in a statement announcing his withdrawal that his decision was to avoid adding “credibility to a skewed and jaundiced process already designed to favour an anointed aspirant.”

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Meanwhile, after the eventual announcement of the results, one of the aspirants who participated, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, frowned at the conduct describing the election as a charade, and skewed to favour the winner.

While he said he would not dump the party because of the development but to remain in the party and correct the anomaly by challenging the process in court, Adegoke lamented how APC would conduct a direct primary without a verifiable membership data base.

 

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