Kola Ologbondiyan, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), says aggrieved aspirants in the party’s presidential primary should present evidence of alleged irregularities before the party’s appeal committee.
On Wednesday night, Atiku Abubakar emerged winner of the ADC presidential primary with 1,846,370 votes.
Atiku defeated Rotimi Amaechi, who polled 504,117 votes.
Mohammed Hayatu-Deen came third in the exercise.
Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen boycotted the announcement of the results over allegations of manipulation and rigging.
Reacting to the claims, Ologbondiyan said the party had internal mechanisms to address grievances arising from the exercise.
“The issue of manipulation is strange and what I believe is that the leaders of the party will manage all issues that are arising,” he said.
“I also believe that the party has a machinery through which it can resolve its internal matters.”
The ADC chieftain said allegations must be backed with evidence before they can be entertained.
“Allegations cannot just come without proofs,” he said.
“The party has already constituted an appeal committee. If there are provable allegations, they should go to the appeal committee.”
Ologbondiyan acknowledged that conducting direct primaries across the country posed logistical challenges.
“Direct primary in 8,809 wards in the country is a huge logistical issue,” he said.
He, however, argued that the party successfully demonstrated its organisational capacity through the exercise.
“I think the ADC has proudly showcased its capacity to deliver on this,” he said.
Ologbondiyan added that no electoral process could achieve perfection, stressing that what matters is “substantial compliance”.
“You cannot get it in terms of 100 percent,” he said.
“So what you need is substantial compliance and once there is substantial compliance, I think the majority of the people will accept the result.”
