APC Primary: Ex-guber Aspirant Threatens Defection If His Appeal Is Not Heard

A chieftain of APC in Osun state, Kunle Rasheed Adegoke has threatened to defect from APC if the party fails to set up an Appeal Committee to address his allegation of irregularities in the recent primary election ahead of September 22 governorship election.

Adegoke who said that he would abandon the party if the court, where he had filed a suit seeking the nullification of the outcome of the election, fails to do justice to the case disclosed this in Osogbo, the state capital on Sunday, August 5, the Sun reports.

Fondly called K-RAD, Adegoke had approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking the nullification of the result of the poll in which Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s chief of Staff, Gboyega Oyetola, was declared winner and candidate of the party.

“I will be bound by court decisions on the issue, but if I feel that justice is not done by cancelling the result, I may leave the party to seek another platform for my aspiration.

“I do not have problems with the direct primary option because it is recognised in our constitution. My problem is that the decision not only came late, there was also no verifiable register for members of the party in Osun State.

“There is no ascertained APC party members/strength in Osun state. The party membership registration has never been updated since 2014.

“The tradition has been indirect votes by delegates, which we were all working with until two days to the primaries where we had no time to verify the register.

“The APC constitution which I also participated in drawing has rules on the adoption of direct method of voting in primaries.

“The rules are that the membership register must be verified by aspirants way ahead and must be updated before primaries.’’

 Going further, he claimed that he had tried to reach out to the party’s structure, based on laid down rules for petitions within the party, but without success.

“At the Osogbo secretariat of the APC, there was no committee in place to accept my petition and Omo-Agege, who led the primary election committee for Osun state has not responded to my calls,” he said.

"I am a founding member of the APC right from the days of the Alliance for Democracy. I am desirous of remaining a member of the APC.

“I have handled over 50 pro-bono cases for the party nationwide. I love my party but I want justice to be done. Purchasing a nomination form for N8m is not easy for me but I did that.

“All I want is fairness in the process and I will pursue the matter to the highest court of the land if it has to be so,” he added.