Ondo APC primaries: Abraham makes U-turn, rejects result

The closet rival of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just concluded primaries of the party in Ondo State, Olusegun Abraham, on Tuesday, rejected the result of the election, saying the outcome of the election is unacceptable.

Abraham, who had earlier congratulated the winner of the contest, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, over his victory at the primaries, stated this in Akure, the state capital.

He said the delegates list for the election was doctored and injected with non-executive members of the party.

Speaking through the Director-General of his campaign, Prince Olu Adegboro, in a statement, Abraham specifically pointed out that the process leading to the primaries was manipulated and compromised, saying “the outcome of the election is unacceptable, considering the plethora of staggering facts of anomalies that have since emerged to the demerit of the exercise.”

The statement reads in part: “It is no longer news that as a true democrat, imbued with the best spirit of sportsmanship, I congratulated Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, who purportedly emerged as the candidate of the APC in the September 3 gubernatorial primary election in Ondo State, in the face of palpable disbelief and surprise on the outcome of the primaries by my numerous supporters.

“The news, however, is that sordid and staggering facts have since emerged on how the process leading to the primaries was manipulated and compromised.

“It is now beyond doubt that the delegates list used on the day of the primaries was doctored and strangely injected with a mind-blowing number of delegates who are neither executive members of our party nor statutory delegates.

“To say the least, the manipulation of the delegates list, highly skewed accreditation process and the entire processes leading to the conduct of the primary election had cast the darkest stain on the result of the primaries.”

Abraham, however, said he was ready to employ all available mechanism to challenge the result of the election.

He said: “Against this background, coupled with the change and integrity that our party preaches and practices and having widely consulted with my numerous supporters, I have reached the hour of decision to fall back on the internal mechanism of our great party to seek redress.

“To this end, the outcome of the September 3 APC governorship primaries in Ondo State is unacceptable and I hereby appeal against same.”

The statement read further “The allegations that have sadly pelted the supposedly free and fair Saturday exercise, where 24 aspirants battled to nick the party’s ticket, include but not limited to delegates list tampering, fake delegates incursion, disenfranchising of rightful delegates, smuggling of illegal ballot papers into ballot count.”