Femi Ogbonnikan In Abeokuta
Scores of protesting women took to major streets in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, wednesday, demanding a reversal of the earlier declaration of Prince Dapo Abiodun as the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state in favour of the preferred anointed governorship candidate of the incumbent governor, Sen Ibikunle Amosun, Hon Adekunle Akinlade.
The protesting women, while giving a week ultimatum to the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomole, to address their grievances, threatened to travel naked to the national headquarters of the party in Abuja, if their demand is not meant.
The protesters led by the Chairman of Ilugun Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), Mofoluke Soremekun, and other women leaders across the three senatorial districts, insisted that they voted for Adekunle Akinlade, and not Abiodun as announced by the national leadership of the party.
As early as 8:00 a.m yesterday, the women protesters drawn from across the 20 Local Government Areas of the state, converged at the Oke-Mosan Governor’s office, Abeokuta where the state chairman of the party, Chief Derin Adebiyi, addressed them, before they matched through the ever-busy IBB Presidential Boulevard through Kuto and stopped at the NUJ Secretariat, Iwe Iroyin, thereby disrupting vehicular movements.
Addressing the protesters, the chairman of the party in the state also insisted that no other gubernatorial primary was held in the state apart from that which produced Akinlade on October 2nd.
Adebiyi said, “We all know that in Ogun State, we all voted for AKinlade but those people who didn’t take part in the election are the ones lying that they voted but in their sub conscience, they know they didn’t vote.
“We don’t need to curse anybody but whoever denies us our right and
the victory of Akinlade, God will punish such a person. I stand here as your chairman and I want to confirm to the whole word that we voted for Akinlade.
“Apart from the primary held on October 2, which was fully witnessed and ordered by the National Working Committee, there was no other primary election for gubernatorial election in Ogun State, some people went to Lagos, outside Ogun State to write a fake result.
“I am using his opportunity to tell the authority in Abuja that on my honour as a Christian, there was no other election for gubernatorial election for 2018 in Ogun State apart from the of October 2, 2018 and Akinlade won handsomely
In her own, Soremekun, while addressing the leadership of the party, said the women stood by the mandate given to Adekunle Akinlade on the October 2, 2018 and would not allow anybody to rob them of their mandate.
She said, “On October 2, we were asked by the National Working Committee (NWC) to go to our various ward headquarters which we did, because they had failed us twice. But on the 2nd, we went there, all of us in the party, we voted, enmass for AbdulKabir Adekunle Akinlade as the governorship candidate for All Progressives Congress in Ogun
State.
“We don’t know why somebody would just go and sit down and brought out a cooked up story and upturned our mandate. We are using this medium to appeal to our father, President Muhammadu Buhari; we are appealing to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; and we are appealing to Comrade Adams Oshiomole that they should not upturn the wishes of the masses in Ogun State APC family.
“Nobody can upturn our hard-earned votes from the people we voted for, because on that mandate of October 2 we stand.”
