The meeting of the electoral panel set up by the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) with all the governorship aspirants of the party nearly got disrupted on Thursday by agitators for the zoning of the party’s ticket to Osun West Senatorial District.
The protesters booed one of the aspirants who is the Chief of Staff to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Gboyega Oyetola, when he introduced himself to members of the committee at the APC secretariat in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
While Oyetola is believed to be the preferred candidate of the party’s leadership of the party, the aggrieved members faulted the zoning arrangement shouting, “it is the turn of the western zone of the state to produce the next governor.”
The atmosphere was charged as the APC supporters also shouted down the party State Chairman, Gboyega Awomolo, whom they accused of being bought over by the power that be.
Despite the appeal of the committee members to calm the tension, they warned against the imposition of candidate, describing such as “unfair, wickedness, callousness, and a daylight robbery of those that come from the West.”
The lawmaker representing Delta State Central District, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, presided over the meeting in the absence of the electoral committee chairman, Governor Adul’Aziz Yari of Zamfara State.
Senator Omo-Agege asked the aggrieved members of the party to be calm, assuring them that the conduct of the primary election would be a direct one, as well as a fair, transparent, and free exercise.
He said nobody can buy any member of the party, stressing that eligible voters would have registered their names in the party’s register.
The lawmaker added that whosoever that might want to vote would have to appear in person, insisting that there would be no voting by proxy and each voter must come with his or her valid voter card or a valid membership card.
Omo-Agege assured members of the APC of adequate security for effective monitoring of the exercise while the committee would not allow favouritism, nepotism and segregation to take over the primary.
