Some prominent chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Osun State have dumped the party in protest against the manner it conducted its last gubernatorial primary election.
The aggrieved chieftains had condemned and rejected the decision of the party leadership to adopt the direct primary system to produce the party’s candidate, but the party was adamant and went ahead with the process that produced Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola as the flagbearer.
One of the party stalwarts, who defected to the Action Democratic Party, Hon. Sunday Akere, told our correspondent on the phone that he advised the APC not to adopt direct primary, but it did not heed the
warning.
Akere, a former commissioner for information and strategy in the state, said he left APC in protest against what he described as injustice and highhandedness allegedly exhibited by the leadership of the party during the primary election.
He said the primary was conducted without any guideline, alleging that the election was rigged for Oyetola, the incumbent Chief of Staff to Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
Akere confirmed that he and other chieftains had defected to the ADP, saying their new party would defeat the ruling APC and other parties because it was now populated with “the people that own the
land.”
He said, “We dumped PDP for ADP because we are protesting against injustice and high-handedness among the party leaders. The primary election was conducted without any guidelines.
“At the primary, some agents took over the ballot centres and practically skewed it for their chosen aspirant. But we are going to show APC that we are the owners of the land. We (ADP) are winning this election on September 22.”
Also speaking, the Secretary to the Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, who resigned his appointment and also left the APC for ADP, said the ruling party was filled with oppressors.
Adeoti, who was picked as ADP’s governorship candidate for the September 22 election in the state, boasted of victory.
Our correspondent gathered that aside from Akere and Adeoti, others who had defected from the ruling APC are Senator Bayo Salami and 21 APC local government chairmen.
Unconfirmed reports have it that about 15 members of the State House of Assembly, who were also aggrieved at the outcome of the primary election are set to dump the ruling party in the
state.
