National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has declared the Osun governorship election rerun as “substantially” free, fair and credible.
Oshiomhole, who stated this at a news conference Friday in Abuja, also accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of crying foul because they were unable to rig the polls.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the APC candidate winner based on their independent assessment of facts of the election, dismissing concerns that the electoral body might have come under undue influence from the APC-led federal government.
Oshiomhole said the reasons why the Communications Minister, Adebayo Shittu was disqualified was his illegal exemption from the mandatory national youth service which raises both moral and legal questions.
“Shittu admitted that he did not do the mandatory NYSC as provided for under the law and in his own judgment, his being a member of the House of Assembly in the state and now as a Minister of the Federal Republic, that these were enough sacrifices. But for us as a party, we know that NYSC is a mandatory scheme. So, for us, not participating in the NYSC raises very serious moral issue as well as legal issue.
“As for the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, she has issues that have to do with party loyalty. Our constitution is clear and it dictates that to contest elections or even hold office in the APC, you must be loyal to the party in every material concern. From all she had said in the past and even her comments and general attitude during the screening, the NWC reviewed everything taken together and we arrived at the conclusion that she does not possess the level of loyalty that the APC requires for her to contest elections on our platform. So, those are the reasons. We did not want to have a lengthy explanation to do but she knows why she was disqualified and we know why we denied her the use of our platform”, he said.
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