Ondo Poll: Aiyedatiwa Gets Certificate Of Return Wednesday Amid Protests

The Independent National Electoral Commission will officially present certificates of return to Ondo State Governor-elect, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, and his deputy, on Wednesday.

The certificates would be issued at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, disclosed this to our correspondent on Monday.

He said, “The certificates of return would be presented by INEC to the governor-elect and his deputy on Wednesday at the commission’s headquarters.”

The electoral commission declared Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressives Congress the winner after he secured a total of 366,781 votes, defeating the Peoples Democratic Party’s Agboola Ajayi, who garnered 117,845 votes.

Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party has rejected the results of the Saturday governorship election declaring Aiyedatiwa winner

Speaking with journalists on Monday in Akure, the state capital, the Chairman of the Ondo SDP, Mr Gbenga Akinbuli, described the election as a shame on the democracy of the country, saying there were harassment and intimidation of the party’s agents while the people were also not allowed to vote in many polling units amid alleged massive vote-buying.

Akinbuli said the SDP legal team was already working on the outcome of the election, calling for the cancellation of the results of the election.

He said, “We sent our agent out. If one agent casts his vote at every polling unit, we should record nothing less than 2,000 votes.

“Our agent went to the polling units as early as 7 am, but they were intimidated out of the units; they couldn’t do anything. Voters were not allowed to come out. How can you register over two million voters and you are saying less than 600,000 came out to vote? It’s a big shame on the government of the day. Voters were telling me that they were scared for their lives; they could not come out.

“Our legal team has started work. We are asking for the immediate cancellation of the election. It’s a show of shame, it was a buyer and seller competition.”

Speaking on the exercise, the candidate of the party, Mr Bamidele Akingboye, who polled 438 votes in the election, complained that the election was marred with various irregularities and malpractices.

Akingboye said, “If you see my comments on the radio for the past one month, I’ve been calling on the people of Ondo State to come out and vote. Last Saturday was supposed to be the day Ondo State was supposed to free themselves from slavery and hunger they have been facing for some time, but what I saw was shocking to me. Even an APC chieftain was insulting me publicly; he was even about beating me up, but I just had to play maturity. It was a sad story. I mentioned that this election was not accepted.”

But the APC has denied the allegation of electoral malpractices in the Saturday poll.

The Director of Media and Publicity of the Ondo APC, Mr Steve Otaloro, described the allegation by the SDP as ridiculous and misleading

Otaloro said, “The election, which was widely observed by local and international organisations, has been adjudged as the most credible election in the state’s recent history. The election was commended by all election observers, including YAGA Africa, which praised the Independent National Electoral Commission for conducting a great improvement and departure from previous elections.

“The people of Ondo State have spoken through their mandate, electing Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for a second term with an overwhelming 366,781 votes across the 18 local government areas.”

He urged the opposition parties to approach the election tribunal with their grievances instead of conducting a press conference to “ridicule the sanctity of this well-acclaimed near-perfect governorship election.”

Source:- Punchng