A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Ak Peters, has urged the party to review the outcome of the Oyo North Senatorial District primary election.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Peters said Oyo North Senatorial District is strategic and that the party must field a candidate who guarantees victory in both the governorship and presidential elections.
According to him, there are only four states in the federation where the APC is not in control at the state government level, and Oyo is one of them.
He alleged that the declaration of Hannah Ogunesan as the party’s candidate for Oyo North Senatorial District does not reflect the results of the polls, adding that one of the three aspirants, Dr Gbenga Adebola, who won nine of the 13 LGAs in the district, was replaced.
“The results are there, the elections were concluded, the primaries were held, and the result sheets were entered and returned to the party,” he said.
He also alleged that Ogunesan, who served as Secretary to the Oyo State Government, had a case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in which public funds were returned to the state treasury.
Peters said there are other cultural, religious and unresolved historical political issues concerning her candidacy that could affect the party’s chances of victory.
He urged the APC leadership to review the process and the outcome of the election, saying failure to do so would amount to political self-sabotage that hands the opposition a landslide victory.
“This is not an attack. It is a warning; proceed with this ticket and the consequences will be swift and absolute. The EFCC probe into her tenure, with funds returned to the treasury, is a ready-made campaign issue for the PDP and LP.
“The opposition will exploit the division. Without Oyo North’s numbers, our presidential and governorship candidates will lose the state. Fielding her makes our anti-corruption message sound hollow. In the era of Renewed Hope, that hypocrisy is fatal,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Sani Abubakar, Deputy Coordinator of the New Age Transformative Leadership for Good Governance, urged political parties to always uphold the will of the people.
He said democracy is about the will of the people, warning that tampering with the will of the people could lead to voter apathy and jeopardise Nigeria’s democracy.
Abubakar said there are reports of alleged discrepancies between the results announced at some primary elections and the final list of candidates published by some parties.
He also said there are reports of alleged irregularities in some of the processes that led to the emergence of certain candidates that do not reflect the interest of the people.
The deputy national coordinator warned against the selfish interests of godfathers and political fixers, saying that as an organisation with a stake in the Nigerian project, it had a civic responsibility to speak out whenever things were not going well.
He added that to achieve the new Nigeria dream, the country must first fix its leadership recruitment process.
“What is democracy without respecting the will of the majority? If one person, no matter how highly placed, determines the fate of a local government, a constituency or a state, then it is not democracy. Maybe, I would say it is electorcracy.
“Democracy has to do with the will of the people. You listen to it, you accept it, you submit to it; that is democracy.
“It is our belief that the outcome of some of the primary elections across the political parties does not reflect the will of ordinary Nigerians on the streets,” he added.
