Senator Smart Adeyemi has faulted the Kogi All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary, claiming the exercise was a “rape of democracy”.
Senator Smart, who is currently representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the upper chamber lost in the primary of the party which produced Ahmed Ododo.
Adeyemi while speaking on Channel’s TV Politics Today on Monday described the election as a sham, adding that the poll did not hold.
According to him, the voters did not cast their ballot in the election, claiming that the party officials did not show up for the election.
“Let me begin by saying that there was no election at all conducted. In the whole state, there was no election. What they did was a selection, a sham, a manipulation of people, and a deceitful act.
“You saw the people screaming that they were waiting for 46 hours. Nobody came, and nobody conducted any election. This is a rape of democracy. It is a treasonable offence. It is manipulation in the highest order. It is deceitful and an ungodly act, unconstitutional, and undemocratic.
“What they did was to hand over the electoral materials to all the local government chairmen who in turn went to their comfort zones and handpicked about 200 people to line up in their offices or nearby schools and they counted them and took photographs to create an impression that there was an election,” he said.
Reacting, the State Commissioner for Information,
Kingsley Fanwo disagreed with the Kogi West lawmaker, accusing him of being a sore loser.
Fanwo said, the election was held and party members voted, adding that the Senator’s claims was baseless.
“He said the primary did not hold anywhere. Now, you could see that the primary actually held. That lying is enough to completely dismiss [his claims.
“They are crying foul because they lost the election. That is very common among politicians. When they lose an election, they would come out to discredit it,” he said
He maintained that people of Kogi have decided and they are solidly behind the Ododo