Osun PDP primaries: Protest in Osogbo as Ogunbiyi says ‘Adeleke parades fake school certificate’

For hours on Monday, supporters of Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant during Saturday’s primaries in Osun State, disrupted activities at the party’s office in Osogbo.
They were protesting the alleged rigging of the election in which Ogunbiyi scored 1,562.
The winner, Senator Ademola Adeleke, scored 1,569.
To the supporters who took over major roads in the area, Ogunbiyi was robbed during the primaries.
They also alleged that some PDP national leaders connived with electoral officials to rig the primaries in favour of Adeleke.
Some of them were shouting “Enough of rigging in Osun, “We don’t want a dancing senator as our candidate”.
In Abuja, Ogunbiyi urged the party’s leadership to declare him winner of the exercise.
He told newsmen that he was at the party’s National Secretariat to petition the leadership over the primary that produced Adeleke as the flag-bearer for the September 22 poll.
In a petition addressed to the Chairman, Gubernatorial Electoral Appeal Panel of the PDP, the aspirant said that 42 voided votes and 128 unaccounted votes were for him.
He added that the total votes he garnered at the poll were 1,732.
“I, Dr Akin Ogunbiyi, having polled the highest number of votes in the primary election of July 21, be declared the validly nominated/ elected PDP governorship candidate for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Osun.”
He also called for the disqualification of Adeleke based on the faulted process of the primary.
“Contrary to Section 30, Sub-Section `E’ of the Electoral Guidelines for primary election 2018, the total number of delegates accredited was not announced before the commencement of voting.”
Ogunbiyi alleged that document submitted by Adeleke as evidence of his educational qualification up to school certificate level did not meet the basic qualification stipulated by the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act.
“The Principal of Muslim Grammar School, Ede, Mr Khalid Abbas, who purportedly signed the testimonial had not been posted to the school in question as at the date indicated on the document.
“The principal has denied ever issuing or signing it and the denial is very well on record.”
In his reaction, Adeleke described the primary poll as “a brotherly and family contest’’.
He urged all aggrieved aspirants to join hands with him to reclaim the state from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He particularly urged Ogunbiyi to “come on board,”, and congratulated him for “his hard-fighting team and for running a good and impressive campaign’’.
“It was a brotherly contest in our collective strive to redeem our state. It is, therefore, no gainsaying that we are all winners.
“My emergence as the governorship candidate of our great party marks the beginning of divine liberation of our dear people from repression and oppression.”