Governor Abdulrazaq is a Dictator, Ruined APC Primaries – Senator Oloriegbe
By Ozumi Abdul
The Senator representing Kwara Central in the National Assembly, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, has berated the manner in which the governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) allegedly manipulated the recent primary elections of the party.
Oloriegbe who lost out in the primaries accused Governor Abdulrazaq of imposing candidates on the party by using delegates to do his bidding.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, the lawmaker frowned at the internal crisis rocking the ruling party.
He however assured that the 22 aggrieved senators that were led to the office the President were “no longer aggrieved” having seen the President, adding that they were only concerned about the fate and future of the party.
He described what is happening in the states as “Governotocracy,” blaming the governors for allegedly behaving like lord of the manors.
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“There was no congress; like in my state, the governor just handpicked them (the delegates) one night and said we have done primaries and the list came. So, you don’t even know who the delegates are … and this happened in several states,” he said.
The Senator continued: “Even where people are selected, they should be given the freedom to exercise their franchise by voting for who they want, but it was not like that. The governor directed them on who to vote and some of them took an oath to vote where the governors directed them, and this was what happened in Kwara State.
“In my own election (primary), 17 delegates came back to give me money which I gave them for logistics; others did not because they said ‘we wanted to vote for you, but we are not allowed to vote’. There was one of my colleagues in Kogi who mentioned that people came back (to return his money).”
On how the intra party rancour can be resolved, he suggested that the party should put in place a mechanism to resolve grievances, challenging leaders to as well carry members along on directions to be followed always.
“Where it (a crisis) has happened, a mechanism should be set up for discussions to hold. As it stands, eight APC senators have defected to other parties, and this is because conflict-management mechanism has not been effectively put in place,” Oloriegbe added.
