By Ologeh Joseph Chibu
The recently concluded All Progressives Congress, (APC) primary is a huge fraud, the Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District in the 10th Assembly, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim has said.
Ibrahim described the purported All Progressives Congress, (APC) primary election conducted on April 20, 2024 to elect the Governorship candidate for the party for the November 16, 2024 Ondo State Governorship Election as a mega fraud.
The Senator, at a Press Conference with the members of the National Assembly Press Corp (Senate), in Abuja, the nation’s capital city, on Tuesday, queried the electoral process of the said primary, which announced the incumbent, Hon. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa as winner.
Evidence presented according to Ibrahim, indicated that while all indicators, including the reports of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, 14 aspirants and a large percentage of party members pointed to the fact that there was no election held across the 203 wards of Ondo State on the April 20, 2024.
Irohinoodua learnt that the aspirants’ meeting with the APC National Chairman Abdulahi Ganduje did not yield fruits. Some of the aspirants even accused the APC National leadership of collecting multiple funds from all the aspirants promising to assist them win the primary. One of the aspirants, Irohinoodua accused one APC top official of collecting N25m from him.
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, while distributing certified true copies of the INEC reports of the APC primary election to journalists at the National Assembly Press Centre, noted that INEC officials who were billed to monitor the exercise concluded that election didn’t take place in 15 of the 18 local government areas of Ondo State, which amounted to over 80 percent of the expected total votes.
He challenged the Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo who was the chairman of the election committee, his secretary, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege to come forward with proof of election conducted on April 20, 2024, including the video evidences where any of the aspirants voted in their respective wards, including Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa who was fraudulently declared winner.
The Senator dismissed the idea of settlement with the party top hierarchy or obeying doctrine of party supremacy to negotiate and settle the rancour about the outcome of the primary, stressing that; “I am already in court with the determination to pursue the case to a logical conclusion at the Supreme Court. I have exhausted all the internal party mechanisms for political settlement, including written a petition to the Appeal Committee set up by the party, and also wrote to the National Working Committee, NWC the highest decision making of the party, all to no avail. Therefore, I am at liberty to approach the court of law for judicial solutions.”