The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Sen Smart Adeyemi, has rejected the conduct and outcome of the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
On Saturday, the APC declared the Auditor-General for Local Government Affairs, Usman Ahmed Ododo, as the winner of the April 14 primary election in Kogi State.
According to the secretary of the primary election committee, Patrick Obahiagbon, Ododo, who is the anointed candidate of Governor Yahaya Bello, scored 78,704 votes to beat his rivals.
However, while speaking on Channels Television’s political programme, Politics Today, on Monday night, Adeyemi – who got 311 votes in the election – said there was never an election but a selection.
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He said: “Let me begin by saying that there was no election at all conducted. In the whole state, there was no election. What they did was a selection, a sham, a manipulation of people, and a deceitful act.”
Adeyemi said the voters did not cast their ballot in the election, claiming that the party officials did not show up either.
He said, “This is a rape of democracy. It is a treasonable offence. It is manipulation in the highest order. It is deceitful and an ungodly act, unconstitutional, and undemocratic.
“What they did was to hand over the electoral materials to all the local government chairmen who in turn went to their comfort zones and handpicked about 200 people to line up in their offices or nearby schools and they counted them and took photographs to create an impression that there was an election.
“I can assure you that if APC should go ahead with their plan, the next governorship election will not be as easy as they think because we are going to educate our people… An election is not going to be ‘It’s our party’, the election is going to ‘Who is the candidate? Where is he coming from? What are his antecedents?”
Meanwhile, Kogi Information Commissioner, Kingsley Fanwo, who joined the programme from Lokoja, countered Adeyemi’s rejection, saying the party organised the freest and fairest primary election.
He accused the Kogi West Senator of being a sore loser.
Fanwo also dismissed Adeyemi’s claim of fighting for Kogi West to produce the next governor, insisting that: “If you are talking about fairness, you must also be fair”.
“They are crying foul because they lost the election. That is very common among politicians. When they lose an election, they would come out to discredit it,” he added.
