Prince Dapo Abiodun was last night declared winner of the Ogun State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election by the Mohammed Ndabawa-led electoral committee.
The shadow election was through the direct primary.
Ndabawa, who noted that the election was conducted in the 236 wards across the 20 Local Government Areas, said Abiodun polled 102, 305 votes to win.
Ndabawa gave the scores of other contestants as Jimi Lawal (51, 153) Abimbola Ashiru ( 29, 764) Gbenga Kaka (17,771) Abayomi Hunye ( 9,110) and Adekunle Akinlade (23, 443) votes.
He said the declaration would be “subject to ratification by the National Working Committee” of the party.
He said he was “not aware of such primary” earlier conducted by committees set up by the state APC and the subsequent declaration of Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade as winner by state Chairman Derin Adebiyi.
He added that the Committee he led is the “authentic body constituted by the NWC” to conduct and supervise the primary in line with the party’s guidelines and constitution.
The announcement of Abiodun, an oil magnate and real estate operator from Iperu town in Ogun East Senatorial district, came barely six hours after Akinlade was declared winner in a primary conducted on Tuesday.
Akinlade, a member of the House of Representatives (Yewa South/Ipokia Federal Constituency, polled 190,987 votes to emerge winner in the controversial direct primary conducted on Tuesday.
Other contestants – Jimi Lawal came in a distant second position with 5,046 votes while Dapo Abiodun garnered 3,648 votes followed by Abimbola Ashiru with 898 votes, Senator Gbenga Kaka with 833 votes and Abayomi Hunye with 208 votes.
Declaring Akinlade the winner at the APC State Secretariat on Abiola Way, Abeokuta, Adebiyi said Akinlade polled the highest number of valid votes in the primary.
The state party chairman added that the primary was conducted throughout the 236 wards in Ogun by Local Government and ward election committees constituted by the state chapter of the party “in compliance with the constitution of our party and the guidelines released by the National Working Committee (NWC) All Progressives Congress.”
Adebiyi told reporters that he elected to announce the result and declared the winner instead of leaving it to be done by the Muhammad Ndabawa-led electoral committee, saying the committee was “heavily compromised.”
Adebiyi said: “the Committee was here and they were emphatic, after cancelling the exercise twice that the election would hold yesterday, this is after we had submitted names of local committee and venues in obedience to the guideline.
“Yesterday morning, they still agreed that the primary would hold and we mobilised to our different wards but we waited endlessly as the phone numbers or committee members were switched off and electoral materials not available.
“Up till now, we don’t know the whereabouts of the committee and we’ve not seen them at the party’s Secretariat. They’ve been heavily and highly compromised.
“The guideline is straight and unambiguous, its open secret ballot which is option A4 but they said they brought ballot papers from Abuja, in a direct primary? To do what?”