Delegates who are willing to vote for one of the aspirants in today’s primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ibadan North federal constituency will smile home with a whopping N1,000,000.
Those who do not want the money will go home with cars.
All these are tailored towards ensuring the emergence of the aspirant, who others have accused of threatening violence at the primaries, wins.
Three of the aspirants who spoke separately with TrackNews said the vote-buying tactics are being coordinated allegedly by the governor’s ‘kitchen’
Plus the national delegate, Ibadan North PDP, with its 12 wards, has 37 delegates.
TrackNews learnt that the aspirant, who is believed to be close to someone they refused to name but simply referred as Governor Seyi Makinde’s ‘main man’, is not the choice of the governor and the party in the federal constituency.
Some of the aspirants include Lanre Sarumi, Segun Olaleye, Abiodun Awoleye, Bolanle Sarumi-Aliyu and Seun Olufade.
Makinde, this newspaper learnt, initially wanted his senior special assistant on diaspora, Sarumi-Aliyu so as to ensure that a woman makes the lists of PDP candidate in the state.
He was later convinced about a fresh person. When they couldn’t agree, Awoloye, a former Oyo Assembly member and two-term ex-reps member was drafted into the picture.
Only yesterday, a group— Southwest Watchers, a non-Political group in Ibadan alleged plans by some politicians to manipulate the primaries.
The group noted with dismay the gimmicks played by the minority interest in omitting one of the aspirants’ name, who is presumed to be their favourite, which resulted in postponment of the party’s primaries today.
The group alerted the public that “they deliberately omitted one of their favorite candidate’s name for them to restrategize and find other ways to manipulate the election”.
The group noted that Ibadan North is the largest Federal Constituency in Ibadan, therefore all eyes are on the kind of candidate that emerges.
It added that the ruling party in the State ought to find solution to the current crisis rocking the entire nation, and not fuel it by dancing to the tune of a minority.
