By Hussein J-Isah
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress-APC, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the winner of the just concluded Ondo State governorship election.
The result which produced Aiyedatiwa was declared by INEC’s returning officer, Olayemi Akinyemi, at the Commission’s State collation centre in Akure, the state capital, on Sunday.
The returning officer, Akinyemi, is the Vice-Chancellor at the Federal University, Lokoja, announced that the APC candidate incumbent governor garnered 366,781 votes to defeat the former Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who secured 117,845 votes.
Earlier, the APC candidate had won in each of the 18 local government areas of Ondo State. The LG election took place across 3,933 polling units in the 18 local government areas of Ondo State. The electoral umpire stated that over 1.7 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were collected, representing 85.6 per cent of the 2.05 million registered voters.
Aiyedatiwa took over the reigns on 27 December 2023, after the demise of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, whom he served under as deputy governor, thereby completing the last lap under the joint ticket.
Today’s victory signals Aiyedatiwa’s first governorship win, qualifying him for the first four years as duly elected executive governor after which he could proceed to contest the second term and final lap if he so desires.
Recall that, the main opposition, Ajayi, of the PDP was Mr Aiyedatiwa’s predecessor as deputy governor under Mr. Akeredolu but a rift between the two led to his replacement with Mr. Aiyedatiwa in 2020.
The governor had earlier expressed confidence that he would win the election because of his performance in the last 10 months as governor.
“I am at an advantage to win because of the work I have done in the last 10 months. I was the only candidate that covered the entire state. I felt the people, I listened to them and the people were excited at my appearance. I believe they will translate the love to vote today,” Mr Aiyedatiwa said.
But the PDP candidate, Ajayi, had earlier accused INEC of bias in his polling unit, alleging that there were delays in voting in some parts of the state. According to him, it took 10 minutes for him to cast his vote, which he opined was deliberate in order to frustrate his party supporters
He also alleged cases of vote buying in the state as well as malfunctioning BVAS machines.
He said: “The system has been compromised. It is sad. INEC can’t conduct elections well in one state; just one state
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DSS arrests One for Vote buying
Following a reported case of voter inducement in some parts, operatives of the Department of State Security, DSS succeeded on arresting one person for alleged vote buying during the exercise at Ward 4, Polling Unit 007, outside St Stephen’s Primary School in Akure.
The suspect was caught with two bags of money which were believed to be for the inducement of voters in during election.
Apert from this, there were isolated cases of violence. The supervising national commissioner of INEC for the election, Kunle Ajayi, confirmed that violent clashes took place in the Idanre area of the state.
He said: “We had some violent cases in Idanre,” Mr Ajayi, a professor, said during an interview on Channels TV, adding that with “two forces in the same town, ordinarily you would expect some tension.”
“Automatically the town will be divided, some supporting the APC chairman, some supporting the PDP governorship candidate.”
But the ruling party, APC eventually won in Idanre.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Aiyedatiwa, calling on aggrieved candidates to seek redress in the court of law
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