The secretary and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Local Government Congress Committee for Oyo state, Monday, alerted that the Chairman of the committee Hon . Hilary Amodu has allegedly absconded with the results of local government congress in 29 out of the 33 local government areas in the state.
But in a swift reaction, the Committee Chairman, Hon Amodu described the allegations as spurious, misleading and complete falsehoods.
The secretary and members in a statement jointly signed by them stated that the Chairman allegedly left Ibadan on Sunday at about 12 noon and was yet to be seen or reached on phone till this morning.
In the statement, the committee members alleged that Hon Amodu reportedly left them at Jericho Apartments, Jericho, Ibadan, on the claim that he wanted to see a friend in the city and that he would return to the hotel shortly and that when they asked him to drop the already submitted results with him, he bluntly refused.
“We have not seen or heard from him since then. He did not come back to the hotel where all of us are lodged and our repeated calls to his lines were not answered. We suspect a foul play that the Chairman is working in cohort with a serving senator who had approached us to compromise the congress”, they alleged.
The committee members added, “we have reported the matter to our party headquarters with a request for fresh elections results. We want to assure our party members in Oyo state not to worry or express any fear over the development as no manipulation whatsoever can be done to the results”.
“Our party is a much organised and disciplined party and the process of the congress as put in place by the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) cannot be falsified or compromised in anyway”.
Hon Amodu in his reaction said the allegation that he absconded with a serving Senator from the state was not only untrue but also unfounded and condemnable., saying, ” I left Ibadan on Sunday (a day after the Congress) with the duly signed results and this was to the knowledge of all members of my team who later joined me in Abuja where we were being expected to submit both the results and the Reports of the exercise”.
“My attention has just be drawn to a write up purportedly written and circulated to discredit the outcome of the local government Congress of the All Progressives Congress in Oyo state as successfully held last Saturday across the 33 Local Government Areas of the state”, he said.
Hon Amodu added, “First and foremost, I would like to use this medium to condemn the action of the sponsors of the write up which has been found to contain spurious allegations, misleading information and complete falsehoods even as I still hold a strong belief that such material could not have emanated from members of the Congress Committee who I enjoyed good working relationship with throughout the period which our assignment lasted.”
“It is important for me to state here categorically that I, as the Chairman of the Committee, was not in Oyo state to do the bidding of any individual gladiator or group and I do not know of any member of the Committee who showed interest in any of the members or chieftains of Oyo APC as far as the conduct of the Congress was concerned. I can say it unequivocally that we were in the state as unbiased umpires. Our mandate was to be fair to all parties involved and also ensure strict adherence to the Guidelines earlier released for the exercise by the CECPC.”
