The Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation wishes to put on record our observations of the show of shame put on display yesterday, Saturday, April 20, 2024, by the election committee for the Ondo state governorship primary election.
It has become very important for us to speak lest the people, party leaders, and the general public are deceived by the Governor, Usman Ododo-led committee that an election was held to select the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo state.
Without any fear of contradiction, we state here that no election was held in any part of Ondo State on Saturday to elect the candidate of the APC. It is on record with incontrovertible evidence that nothing in the semblance of a primary election was held in all the 203 wards in Ondo state. At best, what can be said to have happened was that the committee chairman, Governor Ododo, arrived in the state at about 8 am on Saturday to write the result of an election that was never conducted.
Saturday’s election presented our dear party with a rare opportunity to endear itself to the people of the state. All that was needed was for us to organise an election that would be hailed by all, even the opposition. But we bungled the opportunity with the sham organised by the electoral committee.
The people have eyes and they can see. But on Saturday, they did not see any part of the state where electoral committee members counted the votes as expected. Rather, what they witnessed was a crowd of our enthusiastic supporters who stood in the sun for several hours waiting for the elusive electoral officers to turn up. But they dashed their hopes and expectations of a robust democratic engagement.
It is also noteworthy to state that on Friday, April 19, 2024, the secretary of the committee, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who stood in for Governor Usman Ododo at the stakeholders’ meeting had assured all the aspirants and other stakeholders that all the guidelines put in place to ensure the integrity and smooth conduct of the nomination exercise would be followed to the letter.
But it was not surprising that what Governor Ododo did on Saturday was far distant from what was promised. However, what was surprising was the audacity and the indecent manner the election committee actualised its plot, which was scripted and directed to favour a particular candidate.
For them, a little display of decency by allowing the 203 wards’ election committees to pretend to do their job was a sheer waste of their precious time. Never before in the history of the APC have we witnessed anything close to what was put on display on Saturday.
Saturday’s sham election will probably go down as one of the most controversial primary elections ever conducted by our party. The supportive and hardworking members of the APC were robbed and made to understand or believe that their votes do not count.
While we are still trying to process the shameful manipulation and fraud that attended this election, it remains a huge and difficult task to understand why the electoral committee was in such a hurry to conclude and announce their candidate as the winner.
However, we greet the resilience of our supporters across the 203 electoral wards in the state who forsook their farms, trades, and other matters to queue in the sun till well after 3 pm. Be rest assured that your effort is noted and your sweat has not gone in vain.
We, therefore most respectfully appeal to all our supporters to remain calm and peaceful, law-abiding, and conduct themselves most responsibly while we explore legal and democratic ways to register our grievances. We assure you that our principal, Wale Akinterinwa remains absolutely undaunted and deeply committed to the tenets of democracy.
Let the world know that this is not about Wale Akinterinwa. It is our contribution to deepen democracy and for a better life for our people. It is about the future of our state.
Thank you
Ensigned
Segun Ajiboye
Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation
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