Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was, yesterday, declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as the winner of Saturday’s governorship election.
According to the results announced by Prof. Abdul-Ganiyu Ambali, the INEC Chief Returning Officer, he won with a margin of 94,462 votes, spaking off protests from rival political parties.
Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, the peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, his closest challenger had 150,380 votes. The Alliance for Democracy standard bearer, Olusola Oke, garnered 126,889 votes to come third, while Dr. Olu Agunloye of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, got 10,149 votes.
Ambali gave the total number of valid votes to be 551,272 votes, rejected votes 29,615 and total number of votes cast as 580,887.
The council areas won by Akeredolu included the two strongholds of Jegede – Akure South and Akure North; Ifedore, the council area of the state chairman of the PDP, Clement Faboyede.
Akeredolu won massively in Owo, where he hails from with over 32,000 votes.
Other councils won by the governor-elect included Idanre, lrele, Akoko North East, Ile Oluji-Okeigbo, Akoko South-East, Ose, Akoko South-West, Akoko North-West, Odigbo and Ese-Odo.
Jegede managed to win in the two councils controlled by the outgoing governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko – Ondo East and Ondo West council areas.
Olusola Oke also managed to win in Okitipupa and in his home town of Ilaje local council.
However, the result has been pooh-poohed by Oke and Agunloye, who said it did not reflect the wishes of Ondo people. Jegede, who said he was still studying the result, said he had won the hearts of Ondo people, who stood by him during his battle to reclaim the PDP ticket.
They spoke as President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Senate President Bukola Saraki, Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto);House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara; former governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi and the APC saluted Akeredolu on his victory.
Shortly after the election, Oke had complained of pre-loaded card readers, intimidation and harassment of his party leaders and supporters as well as inducement of voters by the APC and PDP to rig the election.
Result not true reflection of Ondo people’s wish – Agunloye
Speaking in like manner, Agunloye lamented that the result of the election was not the true reflection of the wishes of the people of the state.
Agunloye told newsmen in Akure that reports from his agents across the state indicated that there was “distribution of money, clothes and other things at various polling stations.
“The electorate were attacked and driven out of the voting centres while the security agents looked the other way.
“The figures released by INEC to me seemed to had been allocated by the electoral body in collaboration with APC but we will await the decision of the party before we take our next step,” he said.
Agunloye added that this is not the end of the matter, as he will soon “take a decision after conferring with the leadership of our party.”
Jegede studies situation, says he won hearts of Ondo people
On his part, Jegede, yesterday, said that he was still studying the situation and would make his position on the outcome of the election known in due course.
He pointed out, however, that he was happy that he won the hearts of the people of the state who stood by him during the travails.
“I know we have won the hearts of the people and I should thank our people for standing by us, for their show of love and for their steadfastness,” he said, adding that he was waiting for the position of his party before taking further step.
Speaking with newsmen in Akure few hours after Akeredolu was declared the winner of the poll, he said: “We are studying the situation and in the fullness of time you will know what the position of the party is. The events that led to the election is known to us and you. We had 48 hours to prepare for the election, I was cleared by the court on Wednesday and had only Thursday to campaign and on Saturday I had to go for election. The request for postponement was denied by INEC for reasons that we are yet to fathom and these are the things in the next few days we will have to review.”
The Ondo State PDP, Chairman, Clement Faboyede said: “The party will meet today (yesterday)with all the stakeholders and our decision will be made public. We thank God for the litigation processes and at the end of the day we came out victorious and our heart desired candidate for PDP was cleared to contest the election few days to the election and there was no time for campaign and to prepare for the election. We will meet soon and x-ray every angle and get across to the public.”
