….Small Alhaji used Thugs dressed in Black Suit to attack us at venue —Oleyelogun
…..You are murdering Truth —Small Alhaji
The Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Bamidele Oleyelogun, and Aspirant under the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Idanre/Ifedore federal constituency has insisted that the party’s primaries held on Friday remains inconclusive and should be outrightly cancelled by the National and State Leadership of the party.
According to Oleyelogun, a rerun should be ordered immediately in view of the inconclusiveness of the primary as well as the irregularities that marred the process last week friday.
Speaking with newsmen in Akure, the state capital, the Speaker alleged further that violence rocked the primary following attacked on his agent in the primary, Festus Adebobola by political thugs who dressed in black suit.
Oleyelogun accused one of the aspirants, Tajudeen Adefisoye, who is the incumbent federal lawmaker representing the constituency in the National Assembly, of allegedly using men in security uniform to harass.
The speaker who alleged a gang up against him by the party’s leadership, said his opponent, Adefisoye (aka Small Alhaji) disrupted the venue of the primary with armed thugs and security person.
While disclosing that he had to escaped from the venue due to the threat to his life, Oleyelogun maintained that the returning officer who declared the primary inconclusive did not announce any results as against what he described as fake results that were posted on social media.
The Speaker said, “The primary is inconclusive up till now. My opponent at the primary, Tajudeen Adefisoye, brought in lots of armed men both military and paramilitary in about 11 buses, 18-seater buses. In another three vehicles, some men who were in suit with pistols occupied them.
“But at the gate of the venue of the primary in Igbara-Oke, the Area Commander refused to allow them to come in. The situation was not resolved for about an hour before my agent and I could even get inside.
“Later the armed men also gained entrance in the hotel and they positioned themselves in each of the rooms as well as the bar.
“With the situation, I quickly alerted the returning officer, Festus Aregebsola, the Divisional Police Officer and the Area Commander that I’m not safe. I also told him that the people that came into the venue are not delegates. To the extent that they hid themselves inside the toilets, meaning that they already have a motive.
“After they were sent out, accreditation started. Later voting started and when the voting got to 35th person, my agent, Festus Adebobola, noticed that the delegate was about doing things that was not part of the process. My my agent was about correcting the female delegate, the agent of my opponent pounced on my agent and heat him up, to the extent that he slumped.
“We tried to rush him to the hospital in order for us to safe his life but due to the heavy presence of thugs and armed men, we could not go through the gate. So we had to start fanning him and poured water on him. Most of the delegates who were supporting me cannot read and write, so they depend on my agent to assist them.
“Despite the condition of my agent, they continued with the voting process without my presence or my agent. Is that a free and fair primary? When I was informed about the situation, I ran into the hall and shouted that the process must be stopped and at a stage, they discontinued the process.
“Immediately, the process was stopped, thugs and the armed men surrounded the venue expecting to come down. When I sensed that my is already in danger, I called Mr Governor, Deputy Governor and Commissioner of Police that I’m no more safe. For four hours I could not come down, looking for how to escape.
However, he disclosed that the development will not make him quit the party, emphasising that only the Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who is the leader of the party will direct him on what action to take.
“I can’t leave the party because of election, I’m a party man, I remain APC to the core. Even going to court depends on the directive of the leadership of the party who is the governor, he is the overall leader of the party in the state. If they say go, I will go, even they say no, I will not go.”
Oleyelogun added that “At the venue, a man who identified himself as Akeju claimed that he was sent as an electoral commissioner from Abuja who we later got know that he is a commissioner from Osun State. He later stated counting the votes. After counting, he then put the ballot papers inside his pocket.
“Meanwhile, he lacks the capacity to even touch the ballot box or the ballot papers because it is the duty of the Returning Officer to do that. I told him that he was doing rubbish. Later, he told me that what he counted was inconclusive.
“But I cannot reckon with the figure he had earlier counted because my agent was not there and other related activities. Nothing was signed, no form was filled. I have everything that happened at the venue, that the fracas and the entire process on record for future references.
“When the entire process was stopped with the threat, I entered the laundry room of the hotel and hid myself in heaps of towels after turning off the light. We were there for another two hours. They later went to my house at Isarun to look for me. They shot heavily in the community.
“Later, I was sneaked out of the hotel by the DPO through an abandoned road at the back of the hotel. I trekked all through until we got to Owena. The fabricated results that they have been posting on social media are false as well as white lies.
“The primary was a sham and should be cancelled outrightly. Every power belong to God, no one can get anything without God. But you can’t rob me. The molestation was just too much.
“I have reported to the party. I called the Chairman of the party in the state but he has refused to pick my calls. I called for about 19 times yesterday and he never returned my calls. I suspect a foul play from the party secretariat and the Chairman because he is from the same local government and town with my opponent, Adefisoye.
“Even, they refuse to give me the delegates’ list. The one I later saw on the day of the primary, had no phone numbers of the delegates,” Oleyelogun said.
YOU HAVE MURDERED THE TRUTH —Small Alhaji
Responding through his Aide, Adefisoye popularly known as “Small Alhaji” said the Speaker was not saying the truth.
Prince Wale Adegoroye, Special Adviser on Research& Documentation to Hon. Tajudeen Adefisoye; said “the position of Mr speaker, in the person of Rt.Hon. Bamidele Oloyeloogun with due respect is completely at variance with what transpired on the day of election. It is most disappointing that he has unconscientiously chosen to murder the truth.
“Well, the truth is that anybody did beat his agent, rather he was the one that openly hit the agent of Hon. Tajudeen Adefisoye with a charm just to disrupt the peaceful voting process.
“He was even the one that gave instruction to his agent to feign sickness when the young man elected to fight with the agent of Hon. Adefisoye. Our agent was smart enough not to fight with him because the game plan was well known.
“When the agent feigned sickness on instruction of Oloyelogun, the speaker was asked to nominate another agent so that the remaining 17 voters could cast their votes, but declined. He kept everyone waiting for more than 2 hours; yet we refused to get provoked because we were coasting to a landslide victory. As a matter of fact, Small Alhaji would have scored 85 votes if the remaining delegates had voted.
“Also, we did not bring a any thug contrary the claim of Bamidele Oloyeloogun. Rather, he was the one that brought someone to impersonate as a DSS officer before the imposter was openly arrested by DSS officials. We have video evidences of all of these.
“I can confirm to you with video evidences that the election venue was fully manned by security agencies comprising of Police, Civil Defence and DSS officials. There was also no single incident except for the arrest of the imposter hired by Oloyeloogun.
“Another fact is that the ballots were counted in the presence of the three contestants and the agents of the three contestants. While Oloyelogun was busy coming up with all sorts of shenanigans to frustrate continuation of voting as well as counting of the already casted ballots; the second aspirant,Mr Moshood Bakare was the first to insist that the already casted ballots should be counted if Oloyelogun would not allow the remaining 17 delegates to vote.
“Mr Bakare can be reached to testify to this claim. Eventually, the speaker agreed to the counting and it was done by the election officials in the presence of the three aspirants, their agents and members of APC Primary Election Committee,” Adefisoye said.
