Simisola Fajemirokun-Ajayi, an aspirant seeking the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket for the Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo federal constituency, has expressed concern over what she described as suppression of party members during the party's primaries held over the weekend.
Speaking amid the delay in the release of results for the House of Representatives primaries in Ondo State, Fajemirokun-Ajayi lamented discrepancies in collation locations. The aspirant, a former special adviser to the immediate past minister of foreign affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, addressed her supporters in Odigbo Local Council, emphasizing that the genuine will of party members would prevail.
Fajemirokun-Ajayi, a former executive secretary of the West Africa Executive Summit, further disclosed that her camp would pursue peaceful avenues of appeal in the event of unforeseen circumstances. She stressed the need to protect youth and women participating in elections, stating that the party's leadership would do what is necessary.
The aspirant, who outlined an economic vision for the constituency, vowed to leverage the area's natural resources and entrepreneurial potential for the benefit of the people.
She said, “We had a great turnout after the primary elections within our great party, the All Progressives Congress. The results haven’t been announced, but it’s important to protect the votes of young people, of women, and all the people of Odigbo that came out en masse for the Simi Fajemirokun campaign.
“The official results haven’t been declared, but there were reports of suppression across the different wards. It was clear, captured as clear as the day, that our people, as you can see them here, we didn’t rent a crowd. They are here because of passion and because they want to protect their votes.
“They are all equal party members of our great party. They have served across different opportunities to ensure that our communities remain strong and strong for the APC party. Their voices deserve to be heard.
“We’re here just to protect it and ensure that it does not change, because there was a bit of confusion on where collation was happening. There are eyewitnesses here. They’ve been on the field. These are marshals and they delivered for their aspirants.
“We don’t have fear. We trust that the number one citizen of this great state, Ondo, will ensure that the party members’ voices are heard. Free and fair.
“We also trust that our father, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is ensuring that primaries across this country are done well. Let the will of the people, which is the principle of our president, be heard loudly.
“Our programmes are very clear. For Odigbo, we have come to unlock prosperity. Look around you, there are rubber estates and palm oil. We have vibrant youths.
“We’re not waiting on governments to bring us jobs. We are planning to create jobs. We have over a hundred million naira fund already for our Odigbo youths to ensure they have businesses.
“We started capturing them in a database to create small grants for small businesses and micro-businesses that need a little to scale up.
“I keep telling my people in Odigbo, we are very wealthy; we are very rich. We should not be poor, and we are not poor. We came together to come up with that idea because it’s not the leader that will dictate; it is the people that will tell you what they want.
“They told me that they want to be very rich. My job, based on my antecedents, is to make sure that we unlock prosperity with the help of the federal government, the state government, our local government, and synergy across the board.
“Our people will definitely do the needful to appeal peacefully. But we know that the voice of the people is the voice of God. So it will stand.”
