The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Southwest region, Chief Pius Akinyelure has opened up on how
The party chieftain said the election which produced Chief Oluwarotimi Akeredolu as the APC’s flag bearer in the coming governorship election in Ondo state was a flaw.
Akinyelure, in a statement, named the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni and the National Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, as persons behind the act.
He further accused the aforementioned of using NWC meetings to usurp powers and unilaterally take decisions that their offices did not give them the power to take.
Izunaso, he alleged, single-handedly removed, added or substituted names on the initial list circulated to the party’s 24 aspirants, leading to the emergence of a second list that was altered in favour of Akeredolu, adding that his action enjoyed the support of Oyegun and Buni, even when other members of the NWC opposed it because it conflicted with the party’s rules.
Akinyelure’s statement claimed, “The National Organising Secretary confirmed to the NWC meeting of Monday September 19, 2016 that he actually received objections from some of the aspirants as to the delegates’ list. Then he unilaterally made the adjustments as he deemed fit.
“It is emphasised that the National Organising Secretary performed these adjustments without recourse or reference to the NWC. The NWC was not appraised of his actions before the primary. The National Organising Secretary then issued this altered list to the Primary Election Committee for use in the conduct of the election.
“This altered list became available to some of the aspirants in the early hours of the election day (September 3, 2016). When the election process was about to commence, Chief Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and three other aspirants protested and raised objections as to the delegates’ list to the election committee.
“However, the committee members could not address it as it was not within their competence to do so. They went ahead with the conduct of the election. After the declaration of the results of the election by the election committee, three aspirants petitioned the Election Appeal Committee, alleging discrepancies and the alteration of the delegates’ list provided to them by the election committee and other irregularities.
“Consequent on the above, the NWC of the party received both the Election Committee and the Election Appeal Committee’s reports, which were tabled at the NWC meeting of Monday, September 19, 2016.”
A decision by the NWC to submit the name of an interim substitute to INEC as place holder until a fresh primary was conducted suffered a setback after Oyegun, Buni and Izunaso “blindsided the other members to submit Akeredolu’s name in spite of a six to five votes in favour of presenting the substitute name”.
Earlier, the national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu had called for Oyegun’s resignation as the party’s chairman for allegedly sabotaging the will of democracy in Ondo state by overriding the decision of the appeal panel which asked for a fresh governorship primary following investigations that showed that the delegates’ list used for the exercise was tampered with.
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