Kolapo Kola-Daisi, who is contending for the senatorial ticket for Oyo South District in the All Progressives Congress, has condemned the May 31 rerun of the primary election which was earlier held on May 29, 2022, insisting that he and his supporters would fight for fairness and represent the party on the ballot in the February 2023 election.
Kola-Daisi expressed the resolve in a statement made available to journalists by his aide, Sayo Aluko, on Thursday.
The statement, titled, ‘The journeyhas just begun,’ questioned the alleged unilateral cancelation of the May 29 primary election purportedly without following due process.
Faulting what it called lack of internal democracy
in political parties, it attributed this as one of the reasons why many youths developed apathy towards politics.
Making reference to the recently
concluded Oyo South Senatorial primary held on May 29, it read that”At this primary election, I was declared the winner having scored the majority vote of 212 votes, while the closest other contender got 107 votes; even thoughirregularities were noted.
“This election was, however, arbitrarily cancelled and within 24 hours, a rerun was scheduled to hold on the 31st of May, 2022.While irregularities were noted at the election of May 29th, any review of the result of that election can only be done through the appropriate electoral appealprocess. This appeal process would review any issues raised, invite interested parties to make representations and make decisions based on facts, the constitution of our party and also in accordance with relevant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Furthermore, the appeal process requires obtaining necessary approvals within the party hierarchy to carry out its recommendations.How all of this can happen without inviting aspirants and in less than 24 hours does not suggest fairness. The party or its election committees should not unilaterally cancel an election without following due process. We, therefore, distance ourselves from the sham of the primary electionpurportedly held on the 31st of May, 2022, that was tagged a re-run, and we didnot participate in it.
“As far as we are concerned, we have been duly elected as the candidate of the APC for the Oyo South senatorial district having scored the majority votes andshould be allowed to prepare for and contest for the general election scheduled for February 2023.
“We joined the APC based on our conviction of its progressive policies that everyone is equal, that every citizen deserves to benefit from the deeds of goodgovernance, providing opportunities for young people, proffering workable solutions to establishing a welfare system for the less privileged, proportionalredistribution of wealth through a fairer tax system, and developing innovative and people-centered policies aimed at adequate availability of public goods suchas schools, hospitals and necessary infrastructure to make people’s lives easier.
“Also, we believe the youth is the future of Nigeria and will be integral to our agenda. About 90per cent of our population is under the age of 50; therefore, decisions need to be made for the benefit of the next generation. This can only happenwhen we the youth get to positions where we can either influence or make policies.
“On this journey, we toured the whole of Oyo South senatorial district, all the nine local governments. From Beere to Ayete, Ita Baale to Igangan, Ido to Eruwa, we met our people in all the communities and we thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of this journey. The events of the last few days have shown why so many youths are left disenfranchised and apathetic towards politics. The lack of internal democracyin political parties discourages willing participants.
“A fairer system will benefitour party significantly by bringing to the table different ideas as well as different perspectives to finding solutions to issues of today. Still, I encourage all the youths who have an interest in politics not to lose faith. We need to get involved; our movement, JÉKÁ DÁSI, typified by the amount of love and acceptance we received from all corners of the state, should be enoughmotivation to further fuel your desire to serve.
“Our time is now. I want to categorically state that our journey has only just begun. Not only forourselves but to give hope to every other youth looking to get involved in Nigerian politics and governance for the good of country and the benefit of citizens. We will fight for fairness and we believe we shall be representing our party on the ballot as senatorial candidate for Oyo South come February 2023.
