The primaries of the Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagelu Local Government Area was disrupted as one of the chairmanship aspirants, Gbadamosi Kazeem Adeyemi, allegedly mobilised members of the proscribed National Union of Road Transport Workers to hijack the process.
The exercise, which was scheduled to hold at Community Primary School, Alegongo, was however disrupted by the NURTW men numbering over 200 in about 40 vehicles.
It was gathered that the venue was taken over before the arrival of supervisors, party delegates, party members and other critical stakeholders, who were expected to be on ground before the commencement of the exercise.
In a statement signed by three chairmanship aspirants: Babalola Asimiyu, Kelani Abdulahi Sola and Taiwo Adesina, out of the nine aspirants in Lagelu LGA and made available to newsmen, they alleged that the exercise was a total contraction of the principle of internal democracy and what Governor Seyi Makinde as well as Oyo State PDP represent.
They therefore dissociated themselves from the primaries, which they said was marred by violence and gross irregularities that resulted to one of the aspirants, Hon. Olufemi Ajibade, being seriously injured and currently receiving medical attention at an undisclosed hospital.
The aspirants said: “We are not party to today’s disrupted party primaries occasioned by Hon Gbadamosi and his thugs from NURTW who besieged the venue of the primaries with over 200 boys who came in over 40 vehicles to create fear, cause violence, and hijack the exercise with the sole aim of making a kangaroo self pronouncement as winner of the primary.
“We call on Governor Seyi Makinde as the father and leader of our great party, our party leaders in Oyo state especially in Lagelu local government, to as a matter of urgency call this desperate fellow to order as we have completely dissociated ourselves from today’s process.
“We urge our party leaders and various committees of the party saddled with the responsiblity of monitoring local government primaries across the 33 local government to urgently reschedule a new date for Lagelu so that we can call peacefully without terror or intimidation participate in our party primary by exercising our rights as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.”
The lawmaker representing Lagelu State Constituency in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Akintunde Olajide, in his reaction decried the disruption and described it as “desperation taken too far by any aspirants”.
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