The All Progressives Congress (APC) may cancel the September 3 governorship primary in Ondo State.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu won the primary which was hotly contested by other aspirants.
Daily Sun gathered yesterday night that the primary may eventually be cancelled “based on the recommendation of two, out of the three members of the Appeal Committee” chaired by Margaret Bendega
For over three hours yesterday, the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) met and was initially undecided on whether its September 3 governorship primary in Ondo State should be cancelled based on the Appeal Committee report.
Party leaders failed to reach a decision at an meeting held at its national secretariat in Abuja, yesterday.
But, by yesterday night, indications emerged that the primary may be cancelled.
Last Friday, Bendega comittee submitted its report to the party leadership and Daily Sun gathered that while the party seemed convinced that “the list of delegates used for the primary was ‘tweaked,’ no one was held responsible for the infraction. Besides, the ‘tweak’ was not weighty enough to cancel the entire result.
Another source, however, said the party leaders may take a final decision on the mater. Akeredolu won the primary with Jigawa Governor, Abubakar Badaru as chairman of the Primary Election Committee.
He defeated Segun Abraham and Olusola Oke.
Abraham, has challenged the victory of Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN). His petition is with the Appeal Committee.
The result announced by the Election Committee headed by Jigawa State Governor Muhammed Badaru Abubakar stated that Akeredolu scored 669 votes. Abraham polled 635.
Abraham said he was prompted to challenge the result following the emergence of sordid facts on how the process leading to the primary election was manipulated and compromised. After wide consultation with his numerous supporters, Abraham decided to explore the internal mechanism of the party to seek redress.
Another aspirant, Olusola Oke, has also rejected the result, alleging – like many party chiefs – that the list of delegates was doctored.
A statement signed by the Director-General of Abraham’s campaign organisation Mr Olu Adegboro, reads: “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 All Progressives Congress in the September 3rd gubernatorial primary election in Ondo State in the face of palpable disbelief and surprise on the outcome of the primary election by my numerous supporters.
“The news however is that, sordid and staggering facts have since emerged on how the process leading to the primary election was manipulated and compromised. It is now beyond doubt that the delegate list used on the day of the primary election 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 delegate list, highly skewed accreditation process and the entire processes leading to the conduct of the primary election have cast the darkest stain on the result of the primary election held on the 3rd September, 2016.
APC may cancel Ondo primary
