The Osun State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has not announced the official results of primary elections held in the state into various offices barely 72 hours after the completion of the voting exercise.
Recall that the Osun state chapter of the ruling party (APC) on Thursday, 26th of May, 2022 had opted for direct primary which gave access to all party members holding valid membership cards to vote for the aspirants of their choice at each ward’s collation centre of the 332 wards in the state.
As at the time of filing this report, official results of the primary elections were yet to be released. Official results of the State Assembly primary held on Thursday and the House of Representatives primary held on Friday have not been announced including senatorial primary.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that followers of aspirants for various positions in the primary elections of the All Progressives Congress in the state have congratulated their principals while few principals secretly contacted blogs to disseminate unconfirmed results that portrayed their principals as leading aspirants.
There are allegations of manipulations, vote-buying, violence and no-voting in some areas within the state.
A check by WITHIN NIGERIA revealed that the party primaries organised in some areas like Ife Federal Constituency and Oriade/Obokun Federal Constituency among others were manipulated while there were also reported cases of violence in these stated areas.
In a letter forwarded to the House of Representatives Appeal committee obtained by WITHIN NIGERIA, Six aspirants from Ife Federal Constituency decried the spate of violence the primary election recorded and also accused Tajudeen Lawal, Deputy Chairman of the party in Osun of manipulating results to favour his preferred aspirant.
Adereti Oluwaseyi, a party member told WITHIN NIGERIA that the delay of election results is suspicious and it would reduce the acceptance of winners when announced.
Oluwaseyi added that there are speculations that some top aides in the government are the brains behind the delay.
They simply want to impose their preffered aspirants on party members. If not, why should it take eternity for election results to be announced? he asked.
An insider who spoke with WITHIN NIGERIA on Sunday evening confirmed that the primary election results are ready and would be announced soon.
When asked about the cause of delay in compilation and announcement of result, the insider said the matter is strictly internal party affairs and it would be resolved amicably.
The insider who prefers to be anonymous stressed that the results of all primaries will be announced at a time but as a party who looks forward to winning election in couple of weeks, there is a need for reconciliation, proper negotiation and appeal to those who were not elected by party members in the contest to stay and grow the party for victory in the gubernatorial poll.
According to the insider, results of the elections are untampered with but the victory at the poll especially the coming guber poll is more important.
We must unite the party and face the gubernatorial poll with less grievances and issues that could reduce our chances of victory, he added.
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