APC’s Aiyedatiwa In Landslide Victory As INEC Records Improvement In Ondo Governorship Poll

Governor of Ondo State and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lucky Aiyedati­wa, was distance ahead of other candidates in Saturday’s gover­norship election in the state in an outing which saw improve­ment in logistics and collation of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>

Though political parties threw law and morality to the wind in an aggressive vote-buy­ing contest, the timely collation of results by INEC was seen as an advance on the out­ing in Edo State on September 21.

Results of 13 local govern­ment areas announced before re­cess showed the APC leading its closest rivals, the Peoples Demo­cratic Party, PDP, and the Labour Party, LP, by wide margins.

The announced results in­cluded Ifedore Local Govern­ment – APC: 14,157, LP: 42, PDP: 5,897; Ondo East Local Govern­ment – APC: 8,163, LP: 31, PDP: 2,843; Ile Oluji/Oke-Igbo Local Government – APC: 16,600, PDP: 4,442; Idanre Local Government – APC: 9,114, LP: 24, PDP: 8,940 (PDP agent disputed the election results for Idanre LG, noting that there was not election at a polling unit. He also cited cases of ballot snatching for his rejection of the result).

Other results were: Irele Lo­cal Government – APC: 17,117, LP: 15, PDP: 6,601; Akoko South­west Local Government – APC: 29,700, PDP: 5,517; Owo Local Government – APC: 31,914, LP: 42, PDP: 4,740; Ondo West Local Government – APC: 20,755, LP: 181, PDP: 6,387; Akoko Southeast Local Government – APC: 12,140, PDP: 2,692; Akoko Northwest Lo­cal Government – APC: 25,010, LP: 23, PDP: 5,502; Ose Local Government – APC: 16,555, LP: 06, PDP: 4472; Akure South Local Government – APC: 32,969, LP: 238, PDP: 17,926; Akoko North­east Local Government – APC: 25,657, LP: 14, PDP: 5,072.

The collation officer called for a recess at about 2am, to resume collation of the results of the re­maining five local government areas at 5am.

Besides mass vote-buying, the election was reportedly marred by apathy and violence in some parts of the state.

The governorship candidate of the PDP, Agboola Ajayi, al­leged that the election process had been compromised.

He blamed the Independent National Electoral Commission for being unable to conduct an election properly in just one state, citing failure of BVAS and massive vote-buying allegedly by the APC without being checked.

The PDP governorship candi­date, who voted at Apoi Ward 11, Unit 004 at RCM Idumado Quar­ters, Kiribo in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of the state, told journalists that he was con­fident of winning the election.

Ajayi said: “The system has been compromised. It is sad, INEC can’t conduct election well in one state.

“The BVAS aren’t working, it took about 10 minutes to capture me. I think it is deliberate on the part of INEC and the REC, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola and we’ve said this several times that the woman can’t be fair.

“I have had series of com­plaints from across the state, people are complaining of vote-buying. It is a very shame­ful exercise.

“But our people must be reso­lute, come out and vote. We must not give in to the shenanigans of the APC and INEC. We will sure­ly overcome.”

Agboola Ajayi won his polling unit with 194 votes, while APC had 3 votes.

Likewise, the deputy gover­norship candidate of the PDP, who is also the current mem­ber, House of Representatives (Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constit­uency), Festus Akingbaso, who raised the alarm that some thugs had invaded villages and farm settlements in Idanre Local Gov­ernment Area, intimidating the residents and preventing them from going to their polling units to cast their votes.

He told journalists at his poll­ing unit at his Oke Imika Unit 008 Alade/At tosin, that he had it on good authorities that thugs al­legedly hired by the All Progres­sives Congress were perpetrating the attacks.

According to him, the thugs were hired to scare the residents so that they would not go out to vote.

He said the thugs had arrived in the villages and farmsteads since Friday night, shooting sporadically to intimidate the residents.

The National Assembly mem­ber expressed disappointment in the security agencies for being unable to go to the locations and arrest the perpetrators.

He said the villages invaded include Ofosu, Omifunfun and Ala, among others.

Aiyedatiwa voted at his poll­ing unit 5, Ugbo Ward 4, in Ilaje Local Government Area of the state at around 8:50 a.m.

Speaking with journalists after voting, he expressed opti­mism, commending the voting process as seamless.

He commended INEC for efficiency at the polling unit, which he described as orderly and transparent.

The governor said: “It’s en­couraging to see the exercise go­ing smoothly here. I am hopeful that this is reflective of the expe­rience across the state.”

He charged the Commission to allow all eligible citizens to exercise their civic right.

Aiyedatiwa said: “I want to call on all officials and security personnel to ensure that every supporter and citizen is allowed to cast their vote freely and with­out obstruction.”

Commenting on the security arrangement, the governor com­mended all the security agencies for handling potential security breaches.

He said: “We have consistent­ly conducted peaceful elections over the years, and I am confi­dent this one will be no differ­ent.”

He won his polling unit with APC scoring 128 votes, while PDP polled 3 votes.

In Akure South Local Gov­ernment Area, particularly the capital city, there was conspicu­ous apathy as most polling units had concluded voting as early as 10am due to a few number of registered voters that turned up.

When Sunday Independent visited Isolo, Odo-Ikoyi, and Owode/Imagun wards, just a pocket of voters were seen in the queues.

At Owode/Imagun Wards 11, the current lawmaker represent­ing Akure South/Akure North Federal Constituency, Prince Abiodun Adesida, commend­ed the Presiding Officers for arriving in time and the device (BVAS) worked perfectly well.

Adesida, who is a chieftain of APC, stated that the voters con­ducted themselves in peaceful manner and that there were no clashes.

At Ilara-Mokin in Ifedore lo­cal government area of the state, the turnout was encouraging.

Speaking with journalists, the state Commissioner for Ener­gy, Engr. Razaaq Obe, described the election in the community as peaceful, free and fair.

He commended INEC for the early arrival of election materi­als and the good performance of BVAS.

Yiaga Africa through its Watching the Vote, reeled out its mid-day situational statement on the election.

Reading the report, Mr. Ezen­wa Nwagwu, chair of the 2024 Ondo Election Mission, said: “Yiaga Africa observed wide­spread occurrence of vote buy­ing across several pilling units, which is becoming a permanent feature of our electoral process.

“We strongly condemn this practice, as it contributes to electoral corruption and politi­cal inequality.

“We commend the Depart­ment of State Security (DSS) for apprehending an individual allegedly involved in vote trad­ing at St. Stephen polling unit in Ward 4, Akure.

“Yiaga Africa firmly holds the political parties and candidates accountable for the negative trends observed in our elections. Political cannot distance them­selves from the persistent issue of vote buying that continues to mar our electoral processes.”

The Nigeria Civil Society Sit­uation Room revealed in its inter­im statement that the BVAS per­formed optimally in 99 percent of the polling units it observed.

Reading the report, Franklin Oloniju said “there were isolated cases of malfunctioned BVAS”, citing polling unit 7, Olokuta Ward 1 and FUTA Gate, Gbogi/ Isinkan Ward, both in Akure South Local Government Area as examples.

But he said the devices were replaced by INEC.

He said: “The average turn­around time for accreditation of voters by the BVAS was abysmal in polling unit 9, Ward 2, Ile-Olu­ji/Oke LGA polling unit 66, Ward 10, Odigbo LGA.”

Speaking on security, the orga­nization disclosed that “In polling unit 64, Ward 1 of Odigbo LGA, the security personnel intervened just in time when thugs attempt­ed to disrupt the voting process.”

It added: “However, a police­man was observed attempting to influence voter’s choice in poll­ing unit 15, Ward 3 of Irele LGA which culminated in conflict be­tween accredited party agents.”

Meanwhile, in its preliminary statement, Centre for Democracy and Development(CDD), noted that little efforts were made by security personnel to prevent vote buying and open campaign at the polling units.

Reading the statement, Mrs. Seyi Awojolugbe said CDD ob­served breaches of electoral procedures during the poll.

She disclosed that a lot of incidents of vote buying were noticed.

According to her, “In Okitip­upa LGA Ward 9, Unit 3, voters were solicited for their votes, with APC allegedly offering N10,000 per voter and PDP N3,000.

“In Odigbo LGA, Ward 1, Unit 1 (Oja Baale, Agbabu), reports of vote buying were noted with APC allegedly offering N10,000 and PDP offering N5,000 per voter.”