Adeyemi said further that the National Secretariat of the APC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kogi must be prepared and explain to Nigerians if a primary election was ever held in the state.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Senator Smart Adeyemi, one of the aspirants for the APC governorship ticket in Kogi, has alleged that the primary election was not free and fair.
The Kogi West senator told a news conference in Abuja on Saturday that he was disappointed, describing it as “a new phenomenon of electoral malpractice.”
Adeyemi, also Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said: “We witnessed a new phenomenon of electoral malpractices and embedded corruption in the electoral process of our country.
“I have heard of riggings of elections but I have not heard of the new phenomenon which we must do all we can to stop in this country.
“The governorship primary election was scheduled for yesterday (Friday). As expected, all of us were in our various wards.
“What we heard was that election was already announced. Results were prepared, even before the commencement of voting.
“Announcements were made and I was taken aback. This is the worst malpractice; the worst form of rigging and unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.
“If there was election and it was rigged, we will know it was rigged, but where there was no election at all, and for someone to have the audacity to write result and went ahead to announce it.”
Adeyemi said further that the National Secretariat of the APC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kogi must be prepared and explain to Nigerians if a primary election was ever held in the state.
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“The primary election was not conducted. All of us mobilised our members. Behold none of the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nor even the panel that was to conduct the election was there.
“The chairman of that panel, the Gov. of Zamfara, Bello Matawalle, was the one that by the constitution of the APC, was to announce the result.
“He came we saw him, but Matawalle was not happy with the way and manner, so he left,” he said.
Adeyemi added, “By the constitution of APC if the chairman of the panel fails to announce the result, the secretariat is supposed to send another chairman, not the secretary announcing the result.
“There is a guideline, but the secretary went ahead, and announced the result.
“The primary election in Kogi was just allocation of votes.”
APC had declared the former Auditor General for Local Governments in Kogi, Ahmed Ododo, as the winner of its governorship primary election in the state.
Secretary of the Kogi State APC Primary Election Committee, Patrick Obahiagha, who announced the results, declared Ododo as the winner of the election and emergence as the party’s flag-bearer for the November 11 election.
Obahiagha who made the declaration, said Ododo polled 78,704 out of the 83, 419 total valid votes cast in the primaries.
