Committee member indicts Ogun APC exco over conduct of legislative primaries

A member of the Legislative Primaries Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for the conduct of both the National and State House of Assembly, Mr Okey Nnonyelu, has indicted the state party executive over the allegation of hijacking the election process.

Okey in a report dated 9th of October which was addressed to the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, submitted that the whole process was “heavily compromised”.

He said that the party executive led by Chief Derin Adebiyi hijacked the process to favour all the consensus candidate picked by the party, saying that the party recruited all the returning officers, conducted primaries and submitted the results to the committee for declaration.

Nnonyelu alleged that the manipulation process started when the executive members of the party came to evacuate them from the hotel where they had earlier lodged to a government-owned hotel within the state capital.

He explained further that the Committee led by the retired Colonel A.A Chiroma held an inaugural meeting with all the members on modalities of the exercise and that it was agreed that the committee should have a meeting with all the aspirants to acquaint them with the modalities and guidelines for the primaries.

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Nnonyelu insisted that the two items on the agenda were compromised and ignored by the NWC representatives.

He said: “At this hotel, the plan started to change with the visit of the Ogun State party chairman, Derin Adebiyi and some party stalwarts to the members of the committee and the process, including materials, logistics and all, were surrendered and handed over to the Ogun State party hierarchy.

“At this stage, the committee ostensibly surrendered her mandate to the state structure. At about 11:00a.m, the chairman of the committee addressed all the aspirants and some stakeholders.

“But, with a clear departure from the original position of the committee, issues about the ad-hoc and inputs by the aspirants were rebuffed by the committee. Therefore, the aspirants were dismissed to face the voters and being a Sunday, the meeting came to an abrupt end.

“I wish to inform your Excellency that the entire process was heavily compromised and surrounded to the Ogun State Government officials and the party exco members.

“The State executive led by Chief Derin Adebiyi recruited the returning officers, conducted primaries, collated and submitted the results to the Committee for declaration and submission to the National Working Committee.

The State Chairman of APC, Derin Adebiyi, when contacted denied the allegation that his exco hijacked the legislative primaries process.

Adebiyi maintained that the process was conducted by the election committee sent by the NWC of APC from Abuja.

He said that the writer of the report should be examined.