The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has knocked the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the conduct of yesterday primary election.
It said the APC’s conduct of the primary was a charade and a mockery of democracy in every sense of the word.
The PDP noted that the national headquarters of the APC raked in N830m from aspirants for an exercise that ‘would be an anticlimax and their aspirations to occupy the number one seat in the state completely eclipsed and all the efforts headed for the dustbin.’
A statement by spokesman of the party, Kennedy Peretei, said Kogi State governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo, wreaked more havoc in the conduct of the primary than his boss, Yahaya Bello, did four years during the re-election primary of late former Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
Peretei noted that journalists were shocked ‘that in almost all the centres that elections were supposed to hold, there were no election materials, neither were there officials to conduct the exercise.’
“Instead, there were reported cases of violence in Akure South and Okitipupa Local Government Areas, where political thugs had a field day. In one of the videos that was seen online to create impression that the exercise held, the returning officer counted to 400 and jumped to 560. Some of the aspirants have since called for the cancellation of the exercise.
“If the APC cannot conduct a free, fair, transparent and credible primary election for 171,922 of their members, they should perish the idea of presiding over the affairs of Ondo State beyond the eight years in which they have practically stagnated the State.
“It is a shame that the APC cannot bring only one of their sixteen aspirants to square up with other political parties in the general election through a process that is above board. That alone, is an affirmation that, the party should be consigned to dustbin of history, where it rightfully belongs.
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ondo State chapter will once again demonstrate its superior organisational sagacity and democratic credentials this week, through a Governorship Primary Election that will be covered live by media houses and non-governmental Organizations in the full glare of the world.
“As at the early hours of today, journalists were still waiting for the outcome of the charade that Usman Ododo and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege called a primary election in Ondo state.”
The Frontier reports that the APC primary election in some parts of the state was later declared inconclusive by the Party and was rescheduled for 12pm today.
