Senator Smart Adeyemi has faulted the Kogi All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary, claiming the exercise was a “rape of democracy”.
Senator Smart, who is from Kogi West, lost the exercise to Ahmed Ododo, but described the election as a sham, saying the poll did not hold.
“Let me begin by saying that there was no election at all conducted,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, adding that “in the whole state, there was no election. What they did was a selection, a sham, a manipulation of people, and a deceitful act.”
According to him, the voters did not cast their ballot in the election, claiming that the party officials did not show up for the election.
“You saw the people screaming that they were waiting for 46 hours. Nobody came, and nobody conducted any election,” he added. “This is a rape of democracy. It is a treasonable offence. It is manipulation in the highest order. It is deceitful and an ungodly act, unconstitutional, and undemocratic.”
He claimed that the results were cooked and returned to the APC election committee for the state.
“What they did was to hand over the electoral materials to all the local government chairmen who in turn went to their comfort zones and handpicked about 200 people to line up in their offices or nearby schools and they counted them and took photographs to create an impression that there was an election,” Senator Smart said.
‘Foul Cry’
But the Kogi State Information Commissioner Kingsley Fanwo does not agree with the Kogi West lawmaker, accusing him of being a sore loser.
The election was held and party members voted, he maintained, dismissing the Senator’s claims as baseless.
“He said the primary did not hold anywhere. Now, you could see that the primary actually held. That lying is enough to completely dismiss [his claims],” the commissioner noted.
“They are crying foul because they lost the election. That is very common among politicians. When they lose an election, they would come out to discredit it,” Fanwo noted.
