Mr. Adesanya maintained that the conduct of the election exercise was transparent and resulted in Rotimi Akeredolu emerging as the main candidate of the party.
A chieftain of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Omo’ba Abayomi Adesanya, insisted on Thurday that the party's governorship primary election held on September 3, 2016 was not rigged.
Mr. Adesanya maintained that the conduct of the election exercise was transparent and resulted in Rotimi Akeredolu emerging as the main candidate of the party.
He said this on a Thursday night episode of Channels Television’s “Politics Today,” the focus of which was the crisis rocking the opposition party after the governorship primary election.
Mr. Adesanya denied that the delegates’ list used during the governorship primary election of the party was doctored in favor of Mr. Akeredolu. He confirmed that those delegates who voted during the governorship primary election of the party were drawn from the ward, local government and State levels.
“It is not possible that the delegates’ list was doctored as far as the party is concerned in Ondo State. These [delegates] are the ones who have been running the affairs of the party for the past two years,” he said.
Mr. Adesanya added that the delegates were also elected in the 2014 at a congress chaired by the erstwhile Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Femi Pedro.
“So, the structure had been in place for the past two years and these delegates were the ones that voted during the September governorship primary election of our party,” Mr. Adesanya stated.
The APC chieftain explained that the State Executive Committee of the party had presented the delegates’ list two years ago to the National Working Committee (NWC).
According to him, the NWC of the party used the same delegates’ list in 2015 for the House of Assembly primary election in the State.
“This list was also used during the primary election of the party’s delegate executive that ushered in President Muhammadu Buhari as the candidate of the APC during the presidential general election,” Mr. Adesanya added.
He criticized members of the Appeal Committee for not being sincere in their report that called for a cancellation and rerun of the governorship election.
Mr. Adesanya further stated that two-thirds of of the State Executive Council has since removed Isaacs Kekemeke as the State Chairman of the party.
He also alleged that some protests staged in the State by supporters of aggrieved aspirants against the party leaders were sponsored.
