Ekiti State governorship aspirant, Chief Segun Oni has petitioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) on the botched governorship primary election.
Oni in his petition said the system was compromised. He accused an unnamed aspirant of hijacking the process.
He described the incident on Saturday as direct evidence of corruption and lack of regard for due process by the party’s top echelon.
The petition said: “I greet you all as you search for a way out on the aborted May 5, 2018 governorship primary in Ekiti State. Please allow me to avail you of some of my observations and feelings after a very careful and serious consideration.
“I am making my comments, believing that I am a member of the family who only recently left and who will continue to wish the NWC well as a friend and former colleague.
“The conduct of the Primary election by the Al-Makura led committee was so fundamentally flawed that it became a major embarrassment to Ekiti State and to our dear Party.
“It was obvious that one of the aspirants chose or had very strong input into the choice of the umpires, a situation that is against all known rules of natural justice.
“The primary election was marred by corruption and neglect of due process.
“Many people saw this as a direct evidence of corruption and lack of regard for due process by the Party top echelon. Personally, I feel ashamed for the Party, that I am a part of the charade that took place on Saturday in which contestants were so blatantly taken for a ride.
“It was observed that this particular aspirant had scores of his aides allowed into the voting venue as “observers”, “press” and “officials”, a strange privilege that they exploited to make a complete mess of the process, sparking off the consequential violence that led to the abortion of the whole exercise.
“Frankly, the NWC owes the people of Ekiti State and Nigeria as a whole an unreserved apology for this embarrassing conduct of the primary. How can we be carrying out a very vital exercise of this nature that we all know will be very crucial to our success in Ekiti and subsequent elections and we allowed the process to be so compromised? Is it that as a Party, we are now unable to assure and deploy a non-porous, above board security to cover such a vital event?
“Honestly, we owe Nigerians an explanation and an apology on this. If we are serious about fighting corruption, the earlier the Party recognises it has a vital role to play, the better it will be for us all, the Party and the nation.”
He further advised the NWC to abandon the delegate election system for direct primary.
“In view of what transpired on Saturday and after a very careful reelection on the manipulation and the corruption that manifestly go with delegate election system, I cannot but agree that our Party must no longer touch it even with a long pole.
“The system as clearly demonstrated is fundamentally ?awed and prone to too much abuse. This was amply demonstrated by an individual who was able to hold the entire process to ransom.
“We must move immediately to the direct primary system to save us from this type of embarrassment in future primary elections.
“We clearly have an emergency on our hands as far as our integrity is concerned and we need to move fast to redeem our image and preserve the Party against any further erosion of confidence.
“Please note that even I am an aspirant, I am making these observations in good faith, as one of you who will not shy away from telling the truth.
“Meanwhile, please be assured of my continuing high regard and esteem.”Oni added
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