Former Osun State governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has dismissed allegations that he influenced the screening process that led to the disqualification of several governorship aspirants ahead of the All Progressives Congress, APC, primary election in the state.
The claims arose after Senator Iyiola Omisore and six other aspirants were barred by the APC Screening Committee on Friday over what the panel described as inconsistencies and gaps in their nomination documents for the December 13 primary.
Those disqualified alongside Omisore include former deputy governor Benedict Alabi; former presidential aide Babajide Omoworare; Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kunle Adegoke; businessman Dotun Babayemi; insurance expert Akin Ogunbiyi; and Babatunde Oralusi.
Omisore, who previously served as APC National Secretary, has rejected the decision, insisting that the committee’s report amounted to “the joke of the year.”
Speaking after appearing before the Screening Appeal Panel in Abuja on Saturday, he accused Oyetola of meddling in the exercise to favour Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, one of the cleared aspirants.
According to Omisore, the screening chairman admitted that he had come under pressure to disqualify them.
“The chairman of the panel told us that Minister Gboyega Oyetola called him and said they must disqualify all of us because he wants his lackey, his poster boy, Oyebamiji. He told us he was under pressure. Unfortunately, we are in it together,” Omisore alleged.
However, Oyetola’s camp has firmly rejected the accusation. In a statement on Sunday, Dr Bolaji Akinola, Special Adviser on Media to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, described the claims as “baseless, misleading and totally false.”
He said Oyetola had no involvement, direct or indirect, in the actions or decisions of either the Screening Committee or the Screening Appeal Panel, stressing that both bodies operated as “independent organs of the party fully empowered by the APC Constitution.”
“Oyetola did not, and could not have interfered in the screening exercise or in the affairs of the screening bodies,” Akinola said, adding that the former governor has always upheld fairness, transparency and due process throughout his political career.
He urged aggrieved aspirants to utilise the party’s internal mechanisms for complaints and dispute resolution, and appealed for calm among party stakeholders.
Akinola maintained that Oyetola remains committed to the unity of the APC in Osun and to the broader welfare of the state’s residents.
(Daily Post)