AS the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State chooses its candidate for the August 9 governorship election today, a major contender has withdrawn from the race.
A former governor of the state, Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke, on Friday, announced that he was boycotting the primaries in protest against what he called major violations against the constitution of the party and guidelines for the conduct of the primaries.
The governorship aspirant said in a statement that he was withdrawing from the race to avoid giving credence to “monumental fraud and irregularities which trailed the conduct of ward congresses held on Wednesday, as well as the unimaginable acts of violence,” perpetrated against him and a few of his supporters by his opponents in the early hours of the day when the ward congresses held.
Alhaji Adeleke said he was surprised that after making a formal report of the assault on him by the duo to the police and laying complaints of electoral irregularities to the party authorities, no action had been taken and there was no evidence that any action would be taken.
The governorship aspirant said rather than investigate and address the complaints made by him and three other aspirants on “the diversion of electoral materials, falsification of results and naked violence on party members, the party has gone ahead to release a dubious list of delegates” to the panel sent to conduct today’s primaries in the state.
He explained that if he, a former governor and former senator, “could not get fairness and justice in an intra-party process,” he wondered how millions of ordinary party members would be convinced that the party would provide them a level playing ground in contesting for positions on the platform of the PDP at any level of government.
Adeleke said having consulted with his family members, party leaders and his supporters in the thirty local governments of the state, he had decided to boycott the party primaries, “being an unlawful assemblage of impostors who were handpicked to stand as delegates and achieve a pre-determined result.”
