The Hon. Rasaq Salinsile led faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State of Osun has accused Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of importing thugs into the state for tomorrow’s governorship primary election.
According to Salinsile, the thugs were conveyed into the state in 38 vehicles at the early hour of today, Friday.
Salinsile said the vehicles were escorted by a police van into the state through Abere.
He spoke at a press conference addressed by Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, a governorship aspirant, on Friday, in Osogbo.
The Chairman alleged the Governor and his faction, IleriOluwa of plans to unleash attack on members of the party who are loyalists of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in tomorrow’s primary.
Salinsile spoke just as Adeoti doubted the fairness of the primary election.
According to Adeoti, the primary election has already been schemed in favour of Oyetola because of his membership of National Caretaker and Extra Ordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party.
Adeoti said the date of the primary election which had earlier been slated for March 5, was reversed by the NCECPC to February 19, to favour Oyetola.
The former Secretary to the State Government said: “We have it on good authority that the NCECPC was influenced by Oyetola to reverse the date to have the primary before the National Convention coming up on February 26, 2022.
“It is believed that Oyetola is afraid of contesting a free and fair primary election to be conducted by an objective committee after the convention”
He added: “In the spirit of fair play, objectivity and natural justice, Governor Oyetola is not supposed to remain in the membership of the NCECPC. What we are witnessing is a case of a thief adjudicating his own case. He can never convict himself.
“Governor Oyetola’s membership of the NCECPC is against the democratic norms.
Tomorrow’s governorship primary cannot be fair, free, and equitable if Governor Oyetola is still a member of NCECPC.
“We note that like it happened in time of the party congresses, we are reliably informed that Governor Oyetola is the one who hand-picked the chairman and members of the primary election committee. It is within human reasonability not to trust such handpicked committee by an interested party member. Such committee would never be fair to other contenders.
“There can only be point of convergence for us if Governor Oyetola could resign his membership and the process of conducting the primary begins afresh.”
Buttressing his argument on why the primary election will not be free and fair, Adeoti said the register of APC members is not made available to him and his tendency, the Salinsile faction of the party.
According to Adeoti, Governor Oyetola has refused to release the register of party members which will be used for the primary election.
“If there is no deliberate attempt to manipulate the primary process, it is important to make the membership register available, display it for claims and objections before using it for tomorrow’s primary election or any time it will come up”, he said.
Adeoti, however, said in spite of the anomalies raised, he and his supporters will not boycott the primary election.
“My supporters and I are going to participate in the primary election tomorrow. We are not going to boycott. I want to urge all APC members to go to their Collation centres in their various wards to vote for me.
“I called on the security agencies in the state to provide adequate security for our people. As said earlier, the Governor’s camp is planning violence, but we are resolute and believe that the security agents will act responsibly”, Adeoti declared.
