In Kogi State, the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held over the weekend is triggering diverse comments.
On Friday, Patrick Obahiagbon, the secretary of the Kogi All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election committee made an announcement.
He announced Ahmed Ododo, a former local government auditor-general in Kogi State, as the winner of the governorship primary.
‘Results Even Before Voting’
Ododo polled 78,704 votes to beat six other contestants including Smart Adeyemi who came seventh.
However, Smart Adeyemi, the Senator representing Kogi West, is not happy with the process of the primary election of the party.
Faulting the conduct of the election during a news conference in Abuja on Saturday, Adeyemi alleges that the results were already prepared before the election.
The governorship candidate, Ododo is believed to be the preferred candidate of Yahaya Bello, the governor of the state.
“We witnessed a new phenomenon of electoral malpractices and embedded corruption in the electoral process of our country,” Adeyemi alleges.
“I have heard of riggings of elections but I have not heard of the new phenomenon which we must do all we can to stop in this country.
“The governorship primary election was scheduled for yesterday (Friday).
“As expected, all of us were in our various wards.
“What we heard was that the election result was already announced.
“Results were prepared, even before the commencement of voting,” Adeyemi says.
Worse Malpractice
Furthermore, he says he was taken aback by the announcement.
“This is the worst malpractice; the worst form of rigging and unprecedented in the history of Nigeria
“If there was an election and it was rigged, we will know it was rigged, but where there was no election at all, and for someone to have the audacity to write result and went ahead to announce it,” Adeyemi states.
Also, the Senator says that the national secretariat of the APC and the resident electoral commissioner (REC) in Kogi should be ready to defend the election.
“The primary election was not conducted. All of us mobilised our members.
“Behold non of the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nor even the panel that was to conduct the election was there,” he said.
“The chairman of that panel, the Governor of Zamfara, Bello Matawalle, was the one that, by the constitution of the APC, was to announce the result.
“He came, we saw him, but Matawalle was not happy with the way and manner, so he left,” Adeyemi adds.
See: How Domestic Staff Planned Tiwa Savage’s Abduction
According to the senator, the party’s constitution states that “if the chairman of the panel fails to announce the result, the secretariat is supposed to send another chairman”.
However, in this case, it was the secretary that announced the results.
Finally, the senator concludes that the primary election in Kogi was “just allocation of votes”.
