the party over the failure to conduct a validation exercise of members of the party scheduled to take place a week before the election.
This fear is exacerbated by a group within the APC in the state, Ondo Vanguard For Good Governance, raising the alarm over the development, describing it as a calculated attempt to manipulate figures that could be used to rig the outcome of the upcoming governorship primary elections on Saturday.
In a statement issued by the group and signed by its Coordinator, Evangelist Tade Ojo, it was noted that the delegate election scheduled for Monday, 15th April, failed to take place across all 203 wards and 18 local government areas of the state.
Ojo alleged that the exercise was deliberately put on hold to give an edge to the incumbent governor and to allow some officials to write results without holding a primary election.
According to him, the APC guidelines stipulate that the validation exercise of party members whose names are in the party register, as of the year 2021, should have been held about a week ago.
He said the exercise ought to be preceded by a delegates congress of the party and expressed worries that the delegates congress, which was supposed to be held on the 15th of April, did not take place in the 203 designated centers for the exercise.
The group disclosed that some senior members of the party held a meeting and concluded on how to carry out plans to favor a particular aspirant.
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The statement read: “Members of the APC who obtained forms and offered themselves for the exercise were not allowed to participate because the delegates congress was never held.
“These two exercises ought to be carried out at the various designated election centers in each of the 18 Local Government Areas and 203 wards respectively in Ondo state.
“Regrettably, the validation exercise that was said to have been done was only carried out in the hotel rooms of these agents of destabilization, and the delegates congress of today was also not held at their various designated points.
“They came into the state, lodged in hotels, met with the governor and his agents, and went back to Abuja without coming to any of the Local Government Areas in Ondo state.
“This undemocratic action heralded their plots to rig the primary election as it has emboldened some men to print forged membership cards for their members whose names are contained in the manufactured membership register they gave to the officials that came for the membership validation exercise and also encouraged their agents not to conduct the delegate congress stipulated in the APC guidelines.
“Having realized that the governor is not popular among the APC members in Ondo state, the state governor and these agents of destabilization have resolved to simply concoct the results of the primary election and award arbitrary figures to the governor as the winner of the primary election.
“He demanded that the election should not be held, but the result be written only for the monitoring team to write a report that would reflect and support the result that would have been authored and declared by them.”
The group maintained that the development might affect the process of a free, fair, and credible primary, saying: “today, we have come to tell the entire people of Ondo state, the national leadership of the APC, and all Nigerians that all the processes that ought to lead to a free, fair, and credible primary election in Ondo State have been violated by the party officials sent by APC to Ondo state.
“Members of the public are hereby put on notice that APC is again threading the path of perversion and corruption of the electoral process, and it will have itself to blame if the hawks at work are allowed to have their way.”
But in a swift reaction, the Director of Information, Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s Campaign Organization, Kayode Fasua, said that “While it is clear that these allegations are coming from faceless people, we can’t, for the sake of ignoring them, allow innocent people to be hoodwinked.
“The primary election is an internal affair of the APC, and the party leadership is independent of the government.
“Before the party, all aspirants, including the governor, are equal in treatment regarding campaigns and the internal electoral process.”
Distancing the governor from the whole allegation, Fasua noted that the prerequisite for voting is the party membership card, which will be confirmed digitally.
Fasua urged the group to challenge the party leadership over the allegations, saying, “Let them challenge the party leadership over their grievances, and I’m sure they will get satisfactory answers. The APC remains united, as political aspiration is in the party spirit.
According to him, “Governor Aiyedatiwa or his supporters are far removed from this lie of printing fake membership cards, as alleged by jittery aspirants hiding behind fingers.
“They should go drink some water and sleep for their enviously frayed nerves. Hardworking Governor Aiyedatiwa has overtaken them.”
