Osun PDP governorship primary was rigged, says Ogunbiyi

One of the governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun State, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi has condemned the results of the Saturday’s primary election held in the State, in what he described as “the rigging which characterised the conduct and outcome of the party’s gubernatorial primaries”.

He explained that Senator Nurudeen Adeleke, who was declared the winner of the primary did not meet the requirement of Section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

In a petition to the Chairman of the PDP Gubernatorial Electoral Appeal Panel, Ogunbiyi alleged that the senior secondary testimonial Adeleke submitted was not sufficient to meet the basic qualifications as stipulated by the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

His petition reads in part: “Senator Ademola Adeleke submitted a document purported to be a testimonial as evidence that he was educated up to Senior Secondary certificate which not suffices to meet the basic qualifications stipulated by the Constitution and the Electoral Act.;the date of issue on the purported testimonial submitted by Senator Adeleke was altered with biro pen; the Principal of Muslim Grammar School, Ede, Osun State, Mr Khalid A. Abbas, who purportedly signed the testimonial had not been posted to the school in question as at the date indicated on the document and the Principal who purportedly issued the testimonial to Senator Adeleke has denied ever issuing or signing it and the denial is very well on record.”

Ogunbiyi said, “I hereby put Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke to the strictest proof of his eligibility and demand that he proves same to the contrary.

‘The obvious implications of 1.1 to 1.6 above are that PDP will NOT have an eligible gubernatorial candidate in the forthcoming September 22, 2018 elections if Senator Ademola Adeleke is fielded’.

Faulting the accreditation of delegates’ procedure he added “Contrary to Section 30, Subsection E of the Electoral Guidelines for Primary Elections 2018, the total number of delegates accredited for the primary elections was not announced BEFORE the commencement of voting. However, at the end of the whole exercise, the Chairman of the panel announced 3,246 as total accredited delegates which is contrary to figures subsequently entered on the result sheet as 3242.”

According to him, the electioneering process was skewed against his candidacy and the conduct fell short of the provisions of the electoral guidelines for the gubernatorial primary election of the party.

“Based on the non-eligibility of Senator Ademola Adeleke, the vote credited to him should be declared null and void. I should be declared the winner of the primary election or in the alternative to prayer No 1, the 42 valid votes cast for me which were wrongly declared invalid be added to my votes and declared accordingly”, he reiterated.