Crisis appears imminent in the Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as a group of aggrieved stakeholders alleged massive illegal alteration on the list of the party’s Local Government and Ward Executive officers towards the coming primaries.
The aggrieved stakeholders that go by the name Osun APC Progressive Group, in a 95 page petition dated March 10, 2018 and sent to the national Secretariat of the party in Abuja advised the national headquarters of the party to do the needful to avoid the repeat of the party’s defeat in 2017 during the Osun West senatorial election. Copies of the petition which spelt out in details areas affected were also sent to the office of the National Legal Adviser and other key National Officers of the party.
The strongly worded petition signed by Hon Caleb Ojo, Hon. Rotimi Bidmus, Professor, Remi Ajala and seven other leaders of the group complained that, “23 out of 30 Local Government Areas of Osun State were affected by the heinous alteration of wards and local government executive officers of APC, which the 2014 Congress produced in Osun State with 116 out of 332 wards involved.”
The petition also informed that, “912 ward executives were illegally inserted and out of the insertions, 857 are holding substantive positions, adding that, “out of the 30 Local Government Areas in Qsun State, only seven Local Government Areas were spared of this criminal alteration of the list of party executives.”
According to the petitioners, “the illegal alterations and insertions suggest intention of manipulating the list of delegates for 2018 governorship primary election in the state.”
They therefore pleaded for “the outright rejection of the altered list; and retention of the list of executive officers of our party that was produced as outcomes of the 2014 Congress in Osun State.”
The petitioners reminded that, “in 2014, our party- All Progressives Congress (APC) had state, local and wards congresses, which produced the state, local and ward executive officers of our party in most of the local government areas and wards in Osun State.
“Since then, no other congress was held. This suggests that the 2014 congresses still stand and remain the authentic lists of executive officers of our party from which the national secretariat of our party can draw delegates for 2018 governorship primary election in Osun State.
“As part of its dangerous trends, which can lead to our party’s failure in 2018 election, the Osun State party chairman in association with some officials of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s government have manufactured another list of local and wards executive officers, where names of those who legally won the 2014 congresses have been removed and exchanged with those who did not contest at all in the 2014 ward congress. The new list is endorsed as certified copy with the stamp and signature of the office of the National Secretary of our party,” they submitted.
“Above all, national secretariat should provide a level playing ground for all contestants to have fair play in all activities related to governorship election in Osun State,” they concluded.
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