Dapo Abiodun: Ogun east senatorial candidate

Confusion on Monday trailed the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries of the Ogun Central Senatorial District as delegates and supporters of aspirants waited for almost 8 hours without election.

But in Ogun East senatorial district, oil mogul, Prince Dapo Abiodun walloped his rival, Otunba Seyi Oduntan to clinch the ticket. He will face Prince Buruji Kashamu of the PDP and Senator Sefiu Olugbenga Kaka, the incumbent, who will now run on the platform of Social Democratic Party.

Abiodun won in all the nine local councils, including Oduntan’s ijebu North East.

In Ijebu-Ode, he got 180 votes, Oduntan 144. In Odogbolu, Abiodun got 320 votes to Oduntan’s 97. In Ijebu North east, Abiodun defeated Oduntan 162-123. In Ijebu East, it was 319-6 and Waterside 269-33. In Sagamu and Ikenne, Abiodun ran away with all the 744 votes. Oduntan won nothing here.But in Remo North, Oduntan was able to squeeze out just three votes, to Abiodun’s 299.

It was a no show however for the delegates, who gathered at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, venue of the primaries for Ogun Central.

They went home disappointed as no one could give reasons why the elections did not hold.

One of the aspirants, Mr Shuaib Salisu, said that nobody could give explanation on what really happened.

“The process is supposed to have started by 8 a.m.; this is some minutes before 5 p.m.; accreditation has not started not to talk of voting. We have to call attention to it that the process did not even commence, talk less of being concluded successfully. I won’t want to go into the realm of speculations; we will like to believe may be there are some logistics problem,”he said.

Another aspirant, Alhaji Ganiyu Hamzat, said that the delegates were not happy with what happened at the venue of the primaries.

“The delegates waited in the sun for hours and before we know what was happening, some people started fighting and that was the end of everything. We want the public to know that election did not hold, so, we are expecting the party to let us know when and where election will hold again.

“Our delegates are ready and as I am speaking with you, we don’t have any candidate in Ogun Central. We want a free and fair election; I do not want to castigate our party; the venue of the primaries was not even conducive; I don’t think we can hold a free and fair election in that kind of venue,” he said.