APC Crisis: Tinubu adopted false report indicting Oyegun

A new angle to the APC crisis over the Ondo guber primary has faulted the south-western position that National Chairman John Oyegun rigged the election in favour of Rotimi Akeredolu

The party’s National Vice-Chairman (South-South) Hilliard Eta said in Abuja Wednesday his south-western counterpart Pius Akinyelure was just doing eye service by indicting Oyegun, Mai Buni, national secretary, and Osita Izunaso, national organising secretary, as the unseen hands behind the rigging.

“For Pius Akinyelure to start a fight that his preferred candidate didn’t win election is uncalled for. He shouldn’t be finding faults in the NWC. He should go back to Ondo himself, with his team and the candidate that he prefers,” Eta said.

“It is very vexatious; it is very annoying that a man, who also voted that the report of the appeal committee should be thrown out, is now crying foul because he has no story to tell his master.”

Eta also said it was true that the National Working Committee members voted overwhelmingly voted in favour of the adoption of the appeal committee report.

“We have read various newspaper reports but I can tell you that no vote was taken (on the issue of submission of Akeredolu’s name),” said Eta.

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“Before we met on the last day for the submission of name to INEC, we had met three times earlier. In that meeting, there were two reports before the NWC – that of the appeal committee was voted on

“That very day, we were 14 in number, not 11 as we have it in the media. Thirteen of us voted for the appeal committee report to be thrown out; only one person voted for us to retain the report and that person was the National Vice-Chairman, North-Central, Alhaji Zakari Indeh. Pius Akinyelure voted that the report should be thrown out.”

According to him, the committee mandated the national chairman and secretary to go out and do wider consultations so that we can have a political solution to the heated environment the situation has caused the party.

“When they returned, they told us of their efforts to reach many people for a political solution but it was very clear to us that we were not going to have political solutions.” He added.

“We had to go through the procedure as we have it in our constitution, which is that when you send a team to conduct an election and there is a petition on their report, it is the NWC, as the appellant institution, that has the power to consider the merits of the election committee report and that of the appeal committee report.

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“If the appeal committee’s report is thrown out, the only report that is left is the election committee report.”

Eta explained that the party’s national chairman almost made a procedural error by asking those at the meeting to vote, saying it was the national organising secretary, Izunaso, who drew his attention to the procedural error.

He added that it was agreed that the only report by the Governor Badaru Abubakar-led governorship primary election committee was left for adoption.

Akinyelure, however, claimed that he and six members of the party’s NWC accused the three of using NWC meetings to usurp powers and take unilateral decisions.

According to him, a crash arrangement the NWC put together was to submit the name of an interim candidate to INEC to allow for the conduct of a fresh primary to be conducted, but the three officers went behind and submitted Akerodolu’s name.