The philanthropist and the convener of the Okanlawon Foundation, Engineer Olusegun Okanlawon has petitioned the National Chairman of APC and the State Chairman of APC in Oyo State over primary election fraud and inclusion of unregistered members in Ibarapa Central and Ibarapa North Federal Constituency Delegates list.
Earlier yesterday, we reported the election fraud in the now cancelled election after a “A strange team came to the election venue in a Toyota Hiace bus with number plate: Lagos BDG-119DN. Upon their arrival, the party chairmen demanded that the proceedings and the delegates’ list should be read for everyone to hear. This was based on hints that the materials brought to the venue were counterfeit. The “officials” afterward sent the party chairmen away”, Engr. Okanlawon recounted.
The petition continued, “The so-called officials were later asked to identify themselves as members of the All Progressives Congress. However, they could neither present their membership cards nor show anything to validate their identities. At this point, the strange officials made their way out of the venue leaving behind the vehicle that conveyed them there. Following our investigation, we realized that vehicle belongs to Hon. Ajibola Muraina, an aspirant for the Federal House of Representatives. This vehicle has been handed over to police custody.
It is a shame that a serving member of the Federal House of Representatives will lend himself and his resources to such dastardly acts that denigrate the democratic process and stain the values of our party. It is imperative that this case is officially investigated and vetted. We demand to know why supposed officials for the electioneering process arrived in an aspirant’s private vehicle.
Among Other Vital Issue he pointed out included, “we have feelers that the official delegates list for the Ibarapa Central/North Federal Constituency consists of unregistered members of the All Progressives Congress”.
We understand that these purported delegates are PDP members smuggled into the list as “decampees” but who are not officially registered as members of our party. This contravenes our Constitution:
Article 9, Section 9.4, and subsection 2 states that “Where a group or association joins the Party, the Party shall welcome the group or association, but each member of such group or association shall register individually at their respective Wards.”
Article 20 “Elections and Appointments” section 4 (A) also states that “Further to Article 20 (iii) of this constitution, indirect primaries for the purpose of nominating a candidate shall be done at a designated venue for that purpose, by an Electoral College of delegates democratically elected by members of the party from the various Wards contained in the particular constituency at congresses. This unambiguously mentioned that delegates are to be elected from members of the party.”
He further reiterated that, “This stand is further buttressed in subsection C of that section that says, “All Statutory delegates to the National convention shall be members of the Electoral colleges for all elections of which candidates are to be nominated.”
It is unacceptable that a group of people, who until a month ago, were not part of our party, and are not officially registered with the party, would be enlisted as delegates in crucial elections while long-standing, card-carrying members of the APC are not represented.
Our resolve is to request party stalwarts to intervene in this matter as our party’s integrity is already at stake. We also demand that proper accreditation of delegates be done before elections.
Please do something fast to save our party.
