Ado-Odo Ota Federal Constituency: I Won The APC Primary Election Before Thugs Invasion, Says Ojugbele

Hon. Jimoh Ojugbele

ABEOKUTA - The Lawmaker representing Ado-Odo-Ota federal constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. Jimoh Ojugbele has declared that he was leading the Friday's APC Federal House of Representatives primary election before the council chairman, Hon. Sheriff Musa allegedly disrupted the peaceful conduct of the exercise.

Ojugbele who spoke through his agent, Mr. Yomi Olojeloju hinted that trouble started when the local government chairman requested that all agents should go out of the hall and return the votes are to be counted.

THE ENCOUNTER NEWS reports that, despite the heavy presence of security operatives from the police, Nigeria army, and Amotekun gunmen again, disrupted the rerun primary election of the All Progressives Congress, APC for the Ado-Odo Ota Federal Constituency slated for Saturday.

The thugs who invaded the venue of the primary held at Alamuwa Grammar School, went for the ballot box and papers shortly before the election was concluded.

It was gathered that election had been concluded in 14 out of the 16 wards before the thugs invaded the hall and started shooting repeatedly.

The Chairman of the local government, Sheriff Musa popularly called ‘Sam 20’ was alleged to have led the thugs into the hall after he had observed that a particular aspirant was winning the election.

It would be recalled that the main primaries which was earlier held on Friday ended in chaos as thugs also invaded the venue of the primaries and chased away delegates and other party faithful with repeated gunshot.

But the agent, who represented Hon. Ojugbele said, “he requested the police officers to ask us to go out and that we should come into the hall after the voting exercise, I disagreed with him and we insisted in witnessing the election, all the six agents present were later allowed to wait.

“We started voting around 3pm and was left with two wards out of the 16 wards, somebody just went outside to tell them that Ojugbele is winning, they immediately organized themselves and they moved in and snatched the ballot box and destroyed the papers.

“They realized they have lost, they mobilized to the scene, cart away ballot box and papers. I can confirm to you that it was the local government Chairman who invited the thugs, led them in and disrupted the exercise, I was there live.

“He was there in the guise of being a local government chairman, he’s neither an agent or delegate, but he was monitoring the exercise and observed people weren’t voting for Akinosi.”

Another agent, Sakiru Tiamiyu, who stood in for a former Chairman of the local government who is also an aspirant in the ongoing process, Rotimi Rahmon, also told THE ENCOUNTER NEWS that he was ordered out of the voting center by security operatives.

He said, “We were told to go out of the hall and come back after the election is ready for counting, we insisted that wasn’t the best practice and all six out of seven agents were resolute on this.

“They asked me for the name of my aspirants and brought out a paper written in pen, but the name of my aspirant was not on the ballot and I was asked to stay aside in the hall.

“Before they started voting, the Council Chairman told the police officers and the electoral officers to chase all agents out, we again insisted that he was not supposed to be in the hall because he was neither a delegate nor agent. At the end of the day, we were allowed to stay.

“When the process was on, one Asade Wahab who was a House of Assembly aspirant also came into the voting all and asked me to go out, the police officers also came and asked me to go out.

“I was going out of the hall when some thugs approached me, I had to run back to the security officers who escorted me out of the place. But within the twinkle of an eye, the thugs invaded the hall and destroyed the voting materials while shooting repeatedly. That was when I was able to escape from the scene.”

When contacted, the local government Chairman denied involvement in the activities of the thugs, saying that he also escaped through the windows when the thugs struck.

“You can confirm from the police and DSS, I was also inside when the people came in, I had to run through the window, how lead the thugs? All those ones are fictitious allegations. I was inside making sure that things were going on well, we were all there when the boys came in.

“I couldn’t know who was leading the election, I was at a distance to the voting center, and I couldn’t see what people were writing not to talk of knowing who is leading. I do not want to mention names, I don’t want to throw allegations, they are the ones feeling jittery, that mayhem one that started those mayhem, but for me, all of the effort my candidate,” he said.

Effort to get Mr. Tunji Akinosi who was believed to be favoured by the Deputy Governor, Naimot Salako-Oyedele who is from the same local government proved unsuccessful, as calls were put across to his mobile phones did not deliver for several hours.

Meanwhile, Ojugbele, in a statement made available to newsmen on Sunday said the rerun was an exercise in futility because he had won the election since the Friday ballot.