The Minister of Interior Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has broken his silence after losing his ward in the ongoing All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary to Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
Aregbesola, was absent at his Ifofin Ward 8, Ilesa East Local Government for the exercise on Saturday.
Oyetola won in Aregbesola’s ward with 309 votes against 146 recorded for Moshood Adeoti, the candidate anointed by the Minister.
In a statement by his media’s aide, Sola Fasure, Aregbesola claimed results of the governorship primary were “farcically counted in favour of the Governor.”
He said: “On behalf of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, I will like to thank you most sincerely for heeding the call earlier this morning to participate in our party’s governorship primary and conduct yourselves most peacefully. You adopted a non-violent posture, even in the face of sore provocation.
“You have demonstrated your loyalty to the party and democratic ideals. You have comported yourselves as Omoluabi in the true essence.
“We have received and continue to receive the reports of the shenanigans of the officials who conducted the sham of an election.
“We have been inundated with reports state-wide of how your names were expunged from the party’s voters register, which was not made available until this morning, contrary to the convention of making the list available to the candidates before the election.
“We have heard of how party registration cards were being hawked this morning to the supporters of the state Governor.
We have also received reports of how accreditation was not done at all in many wards and how people without the party identification just participated and queued behind the governor in many polling units.
“We have received the report from our members and independent observers, how government officials and notable supporters of the governor officiated in the election, how votes were farcically counted in favour of the governor and how the votes recorded for him were more than the number of voters accredited ab initio in many units.
