- Victory sure for us – Sen Basiru
- Our names missing on voters’ register – Ward Chairman
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State is coasting to victory in the ongoing All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in the state with the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola losing his Ward 8 in Ilesa-East local government area.
Reports indicated that the Minister did not participate in the process due to an urgent national assignment that took him out of the State.
In Osogbo Local Government, Senator Ajibola Basiru, who voted at Alaagba Ward 7, described the process as peaceful while expressing confidence that Governor Oyetola will emerge victorious from the primaries.
He said contrary to heightened speculations that the exercise will be marred with violence, the exercise was conduct in a free and fair manner
However, reacting to events that trailed the primary election in his domain, the APC Chairman, Ward 8 in Ilesa-East local government area, Adegoke Saheed alleged that the names of their supporters were deliberately removed from the manipulated voters’ register in order to aid the governor’s victory.
Saheed specifically claimed that the Minister’s absence did not help their cause because the APC’s faction led by the governor used the power of incumbency to harass and intimidate their members and loyalists.
According to him; “It is unfortunate that the process did not go well at all. I challenged the register book they brought because it is not the register we used during the registration.
“I was the supervisor then. I supervised the whole ward. I appointed those that registered members at the units.
“During the accreditation, there were some people that belonged to us and their names could not be found in the register book they brought. I challenged them. I made them know that the register has been doctored.
“They did not listen because they are incumbent and they are many. After the accreditation, I asked them what is the total number of accredited voters. They said they can’t tell me until after the voting.
“To my own knowledge, all the accredited members can not be up to 300. When they started counting, I started seeing so many faces that I didn’t know. I saw people from ward 4, ward 10 were all there, but they did not listen to me.
“They counted over 300 for Oyetola and after they counted 146 for us (Adeoti) they said they cannot count again. They disrupted the whole process and ended everything there.”
