A governorship aspirant of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Oyo State, Chief Luqman Oyebisi Ilaka, has rejected portions of the results announced from the party’s gubernatorial primary election held on May 22, alleging manipulation and electoral fraud in 13 local government areas.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Ilaka claimed that result sheets from only 20 of the 33 local government areas were officially released to the party’s Chairman-elect, Mr. Afees Adelowo, who subsequently distributed them to local governments in Oke Ogun, Ogbomoso, Oyo and Ibarapa Central.
He alleged, however, that the remaining result sheets were handed over to unidentified persons and never reached the appropriate local government structures in Ibadan, Ibarapa East and Ibarapa North where, according to him, the authentic results were collated.
Ilaka maintained that the entries contained in the 13 disputed result sheets could not be verified because they were allegedly not delivered to the relevant local governments for authentication.
“The disputed sheets appear to have been manufactured for the purpose of electoral fraud,” he alleged.
The former deputy governor further stated that party officers, agents and local government chairmen-elect in the affected areas were ready to testify and present what he described as the authentic results collated at both ward and local government levels.
Describing the situation as a “travesty,” Ilaka insisted that the alleged irregularities should not be allowed to stand.
According to him, results available to his camp showed that he won 28 out of the 29 local governments where verified results existed, with a margin of about 14,000 votes.
He also argued that the total number of registered party members in the four local governments where his camp did not have alternate results was less than 4,000, making it impossible to overturn the margin he claimed to have secured.
Ilaka urged the party leadership to focus on strengthening internal unity ahead of the general election rather than allowing disputes arising from what he described as manipulated results.
“Our party already faces significant challenges, and our collective focus should be on building unity and preparing to win the general election, not undermining the democratic process through manipulated results,” he said.
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