The primary elections of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, across the country have been marred by violence, intimidation and imposition of candidates, my checks nationwide have shown.
In controversial consensus arrangements, candidates for the April general elections have emerged in some states, most times, against the will of the majority of the electorate.
It was learnt that some popular candidates who enjoyed the support of the electorate were forced to withdraw for endorsed candidates.
Candidates who refused to withdraw were disenfranchised while the endorsed candidates were selected by godfathers instead of being elected by the electorate as it obtains in any democratic process. This has led to protests in many parts of the country.
Former Director General of the Center for Democratic Studies (CDS), Prof.Omo Omoruyi described the House of Assembly and National Assembly primaries of the Edo State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, as a fraud.
In Oyo State, all the governorship aspirants were summoned to a secluded hotel at the Nigerian Breweries area of Ibadan where the leadership simply announced to them that the ACN leadership, particularly, Bisi Akande, the national chairman, had resolved to present Abiola Ajimobi as the consensus candidate for the 2011 governorship election.
The leadership did not stop there. They also came with a list of names of their anointed candidates for all elective posts in the state, and only wanted the congress called to ratify them.
The flames that started the crisis that eventually consumed the Alliance For Democracy have one real live source with multi-dimensional outlets. And the one “real live source” was ignited on January 1999, when the AD had its closed primaries. In what has been referred to as the night of the long knives, a group of 23 “old wise men” simply chose former presidential candidate, Chief Olu Falae, rather than allowing a primary between him and Chief Bola Ige, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
The move was the genesis of the disintegration of the Afenifere, a socio-political group and the Alliance for Democracy (AD), as Ige joined the Olusegun Obasanjo-led PDP government after the 1999 presidential election.
This move which was condemned by the Afenifere leadership eventually led to the death of Bola Ige.
Bola Tinubu also benefited from the influence of those old men. At the Lagos AD Primaries, Many AD members claimed Funso Williams won at that time, but Chief Ayodele Adebanjo signed the papers for Bola Tinubu as the winner.
Again, today, Funso Williams is no more, brutally assassinated just like Bola Ige. And like Bola Ige, his killers has never been found.
In this year of our Lord 2011, in this 21st century, it would seem that history is repeating itself in Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, a reincarnation of AD.
In Anambra, Dr Chris Ngige , “let out his anti democratic bent by Unilaterally changing the result! He has arbitrarily declared Ben chuks winner with 820 votes over CID with 3,169. Can you beat that?
The story is the same in Edo, Oyo, Lagos, Ekiti etc
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