A civil society organisation, Centre for Sustained Dialogue has declared the February 19 Primary Election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun as credible, free and fair.

This was contained in a press statement issued by the group, signed by Waheed Saka and made available to newsmen in Osogbo, the Osun state capital on Monday.

The group explained that it deployed 22 observers to 14 local governments in the state to monitor the process, adding that there was no violence in any part of the state through out the exercise.

It added further that the only report of violence emanated from Ede and it has nothing to do with the election.

Read the full statement below

PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE CENTRE FOR SUSTAINED DIALOGUE FROM OUR OBSERVATION OF THE OSUN APC GOVERNORSHIP PRIMARY THAT HELD ON SATURDAY 19TH FEBRUARY, 2022

Preamble

The All Progressives Congress in Osun on Saturday, 19th February 2022 conducted its gubernatorial primaries to elect the flag bearer in the July 16 Governorship election. It is worthy to note that on the 18th February 2022, the Chairman of the committee, The Governor of Kwara State, Abdulraham Abdulrazaq had announced while briefing the party members that the party had decided to adopt direct primaries as the method of election as directed by the national body of the party.

In view of that announcement, The Centre for Sustained Dialogue deployed 22 observers to 14 local government of the state; I.e 8 federal constituencies, picking randomly from the three senatorial districts. In addition to that, we also partnered with Insight media to conduct a live coverage of the process and stream live to Facebook.

The local governments covered are; Atakumosa West, Ila, Iwo, Ife East, Ife Central, Ife South, Boripe, Osogbo, Olorunda, Irepodun, Ejigbo, Ede North, Oriade, Ilesa West and Egbedore.

These observers conducted interviews, recorded videos and gave on the ground information on the process and it is with this information obtained from our observers that we are presenting this release to the public as our observation of the primaries.

KEY OBSERVATIONS

l Free and fair process

l Violent free

l Lateness of officials in some wards

l Unregistered voters

DETAILS

FREE AND FAIR PROCESS

Our observers in these 14 local governments noted the process was largely free and fair in all the wards visited. They observed that party members trooped out en-mass as early as possible to take part in the process. Accreditation started at the appropriate time and so was voting.

VIOLENCE FREE

It is worthy to note that the primaries was violent free in all the areas where our observers visited. There was a presence of security operatives stationed at strategic points and also some other patrol vehicles deployed across the local government.

The only report of violence recorded is from Ede and we confirmed from the Osun Police Command PRO, SP Yemisi Opalola that the issue in Ede has nothing to do with the primaries. She also added that the Commissioner of Police, Wale Olokede led a team to Ede to restore peace in the town.

There is no record of violence anywhere in Osun during the primaries.

LATENESS OF OFFICIALS IN SOME WARDS

It was observed in Ila ward 3 that the election officials did not arrive the venue of the election early enough which led to agitation from the party members even though the officials later arrived and the election was conducted as planned.

UNREGISTERED VOTERS

We observed that some people were mobilized to some wards who are not party members, they failed to do accreditation and was denied of voting. They tried to disrupt the process but they were resisted by security operatives present at the wards.

Conclusion

Based on our observation, The Centre for Sustained Dialogue maintains that the Osun APC Primaries of Saturday 19th February, 2022 was credible, free and fair under a tight security.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. INEC needs to improve its involvement in the issues of political parties to avoid legal issues that may arise afterwards.

2. APC should ensure that enough manpower is mobilized for processes like this to ensure more efficiency and effectiveness.

Waheed Saka
For: Centre for Sustained Dialogue

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