Ondo Youths Protest At APC Secretariat, Demand Election Rerun
By Bukar BOLORI
Aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress under the aegis of Ondo APC youths on Thursday protested the outcome of Saturday’s primary election that produced Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa as the winner at the party secretariat in Abuja.
The young demonstrators, who came in four luxury buses, were however dispersed by security operatives mounted at the entrance of the national headquarters.
Barely an hour later, the defiant young protesters regrouped a few blocks from the secretariat by the popular Barcelona Hotel, shouting ‘Aluta Continua.’
While displaying placards and banners that read ‘Ondo APC rejects Kangaroo primary election’, ‘No primary held in Ondo’ and ‘We want a fresh election,’ they threatened to march into the party secretariat again.
Their demonstration took place almost the same time the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, and members of the National Working Committee were placating the aggrieved aspirants to bury the hatchet and support Aiyedatiwa ahead of the governorship election in November.
Addressing newsmen, the leader of the demonstrators who is also a party youth leader in Akure South, Kolawole Johnson, described the primary as a sham and declared that only a rerun election can pacify their people back home in Ondo.
Johnson also appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other leaders of the party to prevail on the NWC to inaugurate a new election committee chairman to oversee the fresh poll.He said,
“How can you say you want to ratify the outcome of a primary and you declared a candidate? It shows there is foul play. Ondo is APC and APC is Ondo State. We won’t fold our hands and allow opposition parties to snatch Ondo from us.
“That is why we are calling on the party to cancel the primary. There should be a rerun and we want a new person to head the committee that will supervise us. What they did is not a primary election. It is selling the APC ticket. We want a rerun because we are not impressed with the poll.
“We, therefore, invite President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to look into this. We don’t want opposition to take over Ondo State.”
