In response to an article credited to an APC chieftain in Kwara State and one of the soldiers of the 2019 Otoge struggle Chief Iyiola Akogun Oyedepo, where he described the APC primary elections for the forthcoming LG polls as another act of imposition, responding to the allegations, Oloriewe Raheem Adedoyin who serves as the Head Ofthe Publicity Committee for the primary election, accused Akogun of crying foul, accused him of staying away from the facts using Akogun’s Isin Local government as a case study where people stood against Akogun’s attempt to impose a candidate, the full statement reads:

As a leader in his own right who should be versed in democratic traditions, Chief Oyedepo ought to know the media is not the first place to go to ventilate his frustrations with the party or the leadership. Whatever grievances he may have could easily have been channelled through the established channels including the appeal committee.

The primary elections apparently didn’t go Chief Oyedepo ‘s way in his Isin Local Government, but the outcome definitely reflects the wishes of the majority of APC members who participated in it. Chief Oyedepo’s annointed aspirant, Mr. Adeboye Adebayo, ran a good race. He was not victorious, but it is not the end of the world for the retired banker. We also do not think that Chief Oyedepo ought to rubbish the whole process simply because his candidate did not make it this time. That is the nature of party politics and democracy.

While we do not shut out the room for improvement, the free and fair nature of the election and the outcome were not limited to Chief Oyedepo ‘s home front. A similar commendable level of electoral transparency and an outcome reflecting the wishes of the APC members occurred across Akogun’s Kwara South Constituency and beyond. In Chief Oyedepo ‘s catchment areas of Isin, Irepodun, Oke Ero, Ekiti, Oyun, Ifelodun, and Offa Local Government Areas, congresses took place and candidates who emerged winners were announced by the party. The Stakeholders who are no less credentialed in democratic practices than Chief Oyedepo would bear testimony to the transparency of the electoral process and an agreeable outcome in their domains.

In Offa Local Government, for instance, the emergence of the chairmanship candidate through a democratic process can be confirmed from the major stakeholders, including Chief GG Jaiyeola, Hajia Fareedah Dankaka, Alh. Jani Ibrahim, Rtd Colonel Ademola Lawal, Hon. Hassan Oyeleke, Barr. Segun Olawoyin, the two members in Kwara House of Assembly ( Hon. JK and Hon. Gbenga Ogunniyi Adato), and a host of others.

It is unfair, if not cheap blackmail, for one stakeholder to surreptitiously berate other stakeholders in a publication lacking in facts and laced with malice against the leadership. As leaders, we can disagree on political choices within the party, but we should be restrained in discrediting the leadership and others that we disagree with.

The party members made their choices, and the party leadership upheld those choices. That is democracy at work. This, of course, does not foreclose continuous and healthy conversations on possible improvements in our democratic processes.

The Kwara State APC Electoral Committee is disappointed by Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo’s fact-free outbursts regarding the recent primaries, which he lost in his local government area