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The Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, complained about the “frustrating and unsatisfactory treatment” meted out to it by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party over the governorship primaries.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Taiwo Adeoluwa, expressed the position at a press conference in Abeokuta.
Adeoluwa, who described himself as a stakeholder in the party, said he addressed the conference on behalf of the party and all the good people of the state.
The SSG recalled how the party in the state had once adopted the direct mode of primaries and later changed to indirect mode because of non-availability of essential materials, such as an updated membership register and membership cards necessary for the direct mode.
He said the state chapter later reversed its decision and embraced the direct mode in conformity with the directive of the NWC of the party.
Adeoluwa noted that the NWC had continued to postpone the exercise which was originally scheduled for Saturday for the third time without official notice to the state party secretariat.
“For the third day running, the NWC has been rescheduling the governorship primaries and we have only been hearing this from the camp of one of the aspirants.
” On each occasion, we have mobilised our people, deployed facilities and arranged necessary logistics costing huge funds, time and energy to ensure a successful primary.
“Today, we have even shut down public primary and secondary schools when we thought it would finally hold since the Election Committee from Abuja arrived in Abeokuta on Monday.
”We were surprised that the exercise has also been postponed as one of the election committee members whom I spoke with said the committee was under instruction from the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, to reschedule the primaries for Wednesday.
“The committee member also informed me that they had brought ballot papers for the governorship primaries,” he said.
Adeoluwa argued that the idea of using ballot papers for the conduct of direct primaries runs contrary to the party guidelines on primary elections.
“It appears there is a script being directed by the National Chairman and we have it on good authority that he is determined and desperate to force a particular aspirant on us ,” he alleged.
He said the party would not participate in the primaries unless the NWC officially writes to the state chapter to affirm a date and explain why ballot papers should be used for the direct primaries.
Adeoluwa, who pledged the support of the state for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 polls, urged him to call Oshiomhole to order.
