A leading aspirant for the Oyo South Senatorial District ticket of the All Progressives Congress in Oyo state, Dr. Olusola Ayandele, has announced his withdraw his participation in the party primary scheduled for today citing lack of transparency and decency in the whole process.
Ayandele, in a phone conversation, told our correspondent that he decided to opt out of the party primary in order to safeguard his integrity and also avoid being coerced into the black book of some political elements who do not mean well for constitutional democracy.
“It is quite unfortunate that we still found ourselves in this kind of mess after putting up concerted efforts to salvage the situation in view of the fact that we had envisaged all this. Our problem started when some individuals showing the signs of desperation, greed and overzealousness at a time we needed to build a party that could attract the best set of people who could add value. They left nobody in doubt of their desire to place their individual ambitions above the overall interest of all stakeholders.
“Let me remind you that I came in as gubernatorial aspirant of the APC in 2018 and since then, I have done so much to uplift the party which I believed was a threshold to offer the masses good governance and quality leadership but as it stands now, the APC needs to be rescued from the hijackers who have turned it to their private political platform.
“As far as today’s primary of Oyo South Senatorial District is concerned, I am out and this hard decision was taken this morning after I did a critical appraisal of the whole process and I came to a conclusion that you cannot build something on nothing unless you want to waste your precious time. I do not see anything good coming out of the Oyo APC’s primary because it is not being conducted to yield any desired results for the teeming population of genuine party faithful.
“Succinctly put, the delegate list being planned to be used has been badly doctored , manipulated by a clique of impostors who think they could do anything with impunity and get away with it. This is in continuation of their brazen display of rascality and manipulative tendencies. However, I am using this opportunity to appeal to all genuine progressive people in Oyo APC to remain calm and await further directive as efforts are ongoing to restore normalcy in the system.” Ayandele stated.
Oyo Central Senatorial Contest: Abisoye Fagade Withdraws, Cites Unacceptable Irregularities In Delegates’ List
Dear compatriots, delegates, the leadership of our great party and members of the press.
I am constrained at this point in today’s internal electoral process to withdraw my aspiration as the frontliner for today’s primary election to elect the candidate to represent our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Oyo Central Senatorial District in the forthcoming 2023 General elections.
While my team and I, together with our overwhelming teeming supporters, have had a hunch for long that certain vested interests and powerful elements within our party in Oyo State had a sinister plan to subvert the wishes of the delegates, we had hoped and worked very hard at ensuring that common sense, fairness, justice and equity would prevail in providing a level playing field for the authentic delegates to elect the candidate of their choice.
But, alas, few hours to the commencement of the primary election, it has become crystal clear that the contrary is the case.
We are alarmed that the delegates’ list being touted for use in today’s senatorial election in Pyo State has been doctored, and fraudulently skewed in favour of an unpopular candidate to achieve a pre-determined result.
After exhausting all civil options to ensure that the will of the people, through the use of the authentic delegstes’ list is used for today’s primary election, we are left with no choice other than to withdraw, in protest, from this brazen and undemocratic process that will most definitely cast our party in a bad light.
In taking this decision, I am doing so as a democrat and a committed member of our great party who is determined not to let the will of the people be subverted.
We have no doubt, given the extensive work that we have done over several years, our grassroots visibility and progressives politics that has endeared the generality of the authentic delegates to us, that a free and fair primary election would have produced no other candidate today but Abidoye Fagade.
In withdrawing from this skewed and pre-determined election, therefore, we urge all our supporters to stay calm and orderly and not to take laws into their own hands, in the fervent hope that the leadership of our party would not allow this brazen illegality to stand..
Our faith in our great party, in Oyo State and in the welfare of the good people of Oyo Central Senatorial District is undeniable as it is unshakable.
We are confident that justice will prevail at the end of it all.
Thank you all.
Abisoye Fagade
Ibadan
Saturday May 28, 2022.
