APC aspirants trade blame over disruption of Ondo primary election

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3 years ago

Two leading contestants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for House of Representatives in Akure North/South, Hon. Mayokun Alade and Derin Adesida, have been trading words over the conduct of the primary which was disrupted by political thugs.

While Alade called for a fresh election, saying the election was inconclusive, Adesida, however, said the thugs disrupted the election after the election had been concluded.

Alade, the lawmaker representing Akure South/North Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, rejected the result of the primary election, saying there was no election.

Speaking after the exercise, Alade said he narrowly escaped being killed during the APC party primary which was held at the Ade Super hotel, Akure when suspected political thugs invaded the venue of the election.

According to him, the process was disrupted by political thugs when he was already coasting to victory in the primary election, saying the hoodlums injured his agent and some of his supporters during the fracas.

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He, however, called on the leadership of the party to declare the primary election null and void, saying there was no election as the process was disrupted by some disgruntled elements who noticed he was about to win the election.

Alade said: “It was a sad day in Akure election, every youth in Ondo State, most especially, Akure North/South federal constituency are not really happy as hoodlums came in while they were sorting election ballot and we were coasting to victory and all of a sudden, everything just went wrong.

“As you can see, my agent was beaten and taken away only to find him almost wounded. Even, I had to run for my life to avoid stray bullets. As we have it, there was no election and we are hopeful to have a re-run soon.

“Hoodlums disrupted the election. In the beginning, one of the aspirants was complaining about his name not being on the ballot as it was in the bye-election. So he has been very furious about the whole arrangement but we decided to go on as well and at the end of the day, the thugs just came in and disrupted everything.

“Putting it into consideration now, the rule of law, the election is inconclusive and we are hoping that the party leaders will come up to announce another date.

“Like you understand in the bye-election, the margin was clear, I am loved by my people. I have just been there for two months, so I am ready to go back.

Asked about the delegate list, he said: “I was not aware of the delegates list, I just saw the list and but for the love of the people of Akure with me, I think I’m good to go into the primary and my people said we can go into the election if we have a very good understanding.

“There is no situation to be reversed, there was no election. My supporters should keep calm, we are very peaceful youths and like you see, this is my agent, we are all calm, we are hoping for the best and we know God is going to be on our side.”

• Election was concluded before thugs invaded the hall ― Adesida

But Adesida who was declared the winner of the contest maintained that Alade masterminded the disruption immediately after he realized he had lost the election.

He said the process was peaceful until after the sorting was done and noticed that he had lost the battle to return to the House of Representatives.

Adesida denied having a hand in the disruption of the exercise, saying “everybody knows I am a peaceful person. I was in the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2011. Everybody knew I never welcomed thugs.

“For him to say the election is inconclusive is just finding something to say because the ballot was sorted, counted and he had already congratulated me before thugs moved in. For them to start writing and alleging that the election is inconclusive is an afterthought.

“Fortunately, my agent and agent of the other contestant, Fadairo had their ballot paper in their hands when the thugs invaded the hall. When the atmosphere settled and added the two together with his figure, about 44, and I got 65, and the other has three votes. We never saw him after.

“So the election had been concluded and it was signed by the electoral officers who announced the election. Alade should be disciplined for this action by the party leadership.”