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 that Oyo North Senatorial District is strategic and that the party must field a candidate that guarantees victory for governorship and presidential elections as well.
According to him, there are only four states in the federation where the APC is not in charge at the state government level and Oyo is one of those.
He alleged that the declaration of Hannah Ogunesan as the party’s candidate for Oyo North Senatorial District does not reflect the results at the polls.
According to him, one of the contestants of the three aspirants, Dr Gbenga Adebola won nine of the 13 LGAs in the district, was replaced.
“The results are there, the elections were concluded, the primaries held, result sheets were entered and returned to the party,” he said.
He also said that Ogunesan who served as the Secretary to the Oyo State Government, had a case with Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where public funds were returned to state coffers.
Peters said that there are other cultural, religious and unresolved historic political issues concerning her candidacy that will affect the party chances of victory.
He urged the APC hierarchy to review the process and the outcome of the election saying that failure to do so is 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 for PDP and LP.
“The opposition will exploit the division, without Oyo North’s numbers, our presidential and gubernatorial 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, the Deputy Coordinator of the New Age Transformative Leadership for Good Governance, urged political parties to always uphold the will of the people.
He said that democracy is about the will of people, warning that tempering with the will of the people could lead to voter apathy and jeopardise Nigeria’s democracy.
Abubakar said that there are reports of alleged discrepancies in the results announced at some primary polls and the final list of candidates published by some parties.
He said that there are also reports of alleged irregularities in some of the processes that led to the emergency of certain candidates that does not reflects the interest of the people.
The Deputy National Coordinator, warned against the selfish interest of godfathers and fixers in politics.
He said that as an organisation with a stake in the Nigerian project, they have the civil responsibility to speak out when things are not going on well.
He said that to achieve the “New Nigeria” dream, the country must first fix its leadership recruitment processes.
“What is democracy without respecting the will of the majority? If one person, one individual, no matter how highly place, determines the fate of a local government, of a constituency of a state, then it’s 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 all the political parties does not reflect the will of the ordinary in Nigerian on the streets,” he said.
