Results were ready before election’ — Smart Adeyemi faults Kogi APC guber primary

The All Progressives Congress (APC) primary poll that resulted in the party’s governorship candidate has been criticized by Smart Adeyemi, senator for Kogi west.

Ahmed Ododo, a former local government auditor-general in Kogi state, was declared the victor of the governorship primary on Friday by Patrick Obahiagbon, secretary of the Kogi APC primary election committee.

Including Adeyemi, who finished seventh with 311 votes, Ododo received 78, 704 votes to defeat the other six competitors.

Yahaya Bello, the state’s governor, is thought to have favored the man running for governor.

During a news conference on Saturday in Abuja, Adeyemi criticized the election’s conduct and claimed that the results were ready prior to the vote.

“We witnessed a new phenomenon of electoral malpractices and embedded corruption in the electoral process of our country,” he claimed.

“I’ve heard of election manipulation, but I’ve never heard of the new issue that needs to be stopped in this nation.

“The primary election for governor was supposed to take place yesterday (Friday). As anticipated, each of us was in a different ward.

“We were informed that the election results had already been made public. Even before voting began, the results were prepared.

I was shocked when announcements were made. This is the worst fraud, the worst kind of election rigging, and unheard of in Nigerian history.

“If there was an election and it was rigged, we will know it was rigged, but where there was no election at all, and for someone to have the audacity to write result and went ahead and announced it.”

The senator continued by saying that the resident electoral commissioner (REC) in Kogi and the APC national secretariat must be ready and ready to inform Nigerians whether or not elections will take place in the state.

The first round of voting wasn’t held. We all rallied our supporters. Behold, not a single Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officer or even the panel responsible for overseeing the poll was present, the man said.

According to the APC’s bylaws, Bello Matawalle, the governor of Zamfara, was to make the announcement as the panel’s chairman.

Adeyemi added, “He came, we saw him, but Matawalle was not satisfied with the way and manner, so he went.

According to the APC constitution, the secretariat is required to send a new chairman rather than the secretary to announce the outcome if the panel chairman fails to do so.

There is a guideline, but the secretary released the outcome regardless.

“The Kogi primary election was nothing more than a vote distribution.”