Oyo Central Senatorial District hopeful under the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abisoye Fagade has withdrawn from the senatorial race.

In a statement sent to Thelagostimes, Fagade noted that the decision to pull out of the race was as a result of some irregularities in the delegates’ list.

The statement reads: Dear compatriots, delegates, the leadership of our great party and members of the press.

“I am constrained at this point in today’s internal electoral process to withdraw my aspiration as the frontliner for today’s primary election to elect the candidate to represent our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Oyo Central Senatorial District in the forthcoming 2023 General elections.

“While my team and I, together with our overwhelming teeming supporters, have had a hunch for long that certain vested interests and powerful elements within our party in Oyo State had a sinister plan to subvert the wishes of the delegates, we had hoped and worked very hard at ensuring that common sense, fairness, justice and equity would prevail in providing a level playing field for the authentic delegates to elect the candidate of their choice.

”But, alas, few hours to the commencement of the primary election, it has become crystal clear that the contrary is the case”.

He noted that “the delegates’ list being touted for use in today’s senatorial election in Pyo State has been doctored, and fraudulently skewed in favour of an unpopular candidate to achieve a pre-determined result”.

He added: “After exhausting all civil options to ensure that the will of the people, through the use of the authentic delegstes’ list is used for today’s primary election, we are left with no choice other than to withdraw, in protest, from this brazen and undemocratic process that will most definitely cast our party in a bad light.

”In taking this decision, I am doing so as a democrat and a committed member of our great party who is determined not to let the will of the people be subverted.

“We have no doubt, given the extensive work that we have done over several years, our grassroots visibility and progressives politics that has endeared the generality of the authentic delegates to us, that a free and fair primary election would have produced no other candidate today but Abidoye Fagade.

“In withdrawing from this skewed and pre-determined election, therefore, we urge all our supporters to stay calm and orderly and not to take laws into their own hands, in the fervent hope that the leadership of our party would not allow this brazen illegality to stand.

“Our faith in our great party, in Oyo State and in the welfare of the good people of Oyo Central Senatorial District is undeniable as it is unshakable.
We are confident that justice will prevail at the end of it all”.