APC officials in Osun have refused to accept a petition by Rasheed Adegoke appealing the state primaries of the APC between Saturday and Sunday, a day after the primaries.
Adegoke is a governorship aspirant but the administrative officer of his campaign organisation, Adegoke Adelere, could not find any panel at party’s secretariat in Ogo-Oluwa to accept his petition.
An argument ensued at the APC Secretariat as some staff of the party seized working tools of journalists when Adelere was speaking with newsmen on Sunday.
In a press statement issued in Osogbo on Sunday, Adegoke said, "In line with the statement made by the chairman of the electoral committee of APC that organised the primary election on Friday 20th July, 2018, that complaints could be made to an appeal panel after the primaries, I made efforts to submit an appeal letter to the Secretary of the Panel at about 2 pm on Saturday 21 July 2018. Unfortunately, no member of the appeal panel was present to receive the letter."
"All efforts to persuade the officials of the State Chapter of the party to receive the letter proved abortive. All efforts to reach Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who presided over the election proved abortive as he did not pick my calls and neither has he responded to the text message I sent to him to complain about the failure to have the appeal committee in place."
"Furthermore, it seems no appeal panel has been set up and it doesn’t seem the party intends to set up one in accordance with the dictates of the party’s constitution."
In his five-page petition, Adegoke expressed his grievances against the conduct of the primaries and the outcome of the exercise.
In the opening paragraph of his appeal letter, Adegoke, “"It is on record that I raised certain concerns against the procedure being adopted for the conduct of the primary election in which direct method was being canvassed without compliance with the relevant provisions of the Constitution of our party, All Progressives Congress (APC), 2014 (as amended), he stated.
When asked what would be his next move, Adegoke said: "I might have no choice than to seek legal redress at the appropriate quarters having been frustrated by the leadership of my party".
