Ondo poll: Aspirants Protest As Aiyedatiwa Wins APC Ticket

The Ondo State Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on Sunday, was declared the winner of the governorship primary of the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state held between Saturday and Sunday.

Aiyedatiwa won 15 out of the 18 local government areas in the state.

According to chairman of the primary election committee and Governor of Kogi State, Mr Usman Ododo, Aiyedatiwa scored 42,035 votes from the 15 LGAs so far declared.

The aspirants include senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Jimoh Ibrahim;  Olusola Oke SAN,  former President of Nigerian Medical Association, Prof. Francis Faduyile, a mechanical engineer, Dr Funmilayo Waheed-Adekojo and the National Vice Chairman of the APC (South West), Isaac Kekemeke.

Others are Dr Soji Ehinlanwo, Akinfolarin Samuel, Okunjimi Odimayo, Adewale Akinterinwa, Olugbenga Edema and Brig. Gen. Ohunyeye Olamide (retd), Morayo Lebi, Oladiran Iyatan and Engnr. Ifeoluwa Oyedele.

Scores of members of the APC in the state took to the streets of Akure, to protest against the conduct of the primary, alleging that Governor Ododo did not follow due party’s process.

They were armed with placards with various inscriptions such as “No election in Ondo”; “APC primary electoral officers failed to show up in all wards in Ondo State,’ ‘We demand fairness and justice in APC primary election in Ondo’’; ‘No mandate for Aiyedatiwa, We’re calling for fresh primary election”;  ‘NWC of APC No Mandate for Aiyedatiwa”; “Saturday ‘s APC primary in Ondo was a sham”, among others.

Speaking for the protesters, the Director General of Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation, Ondo Central Senatorial District, Mr Adeniran Oyebade, said the people of the state would not allow their mandate to be stolen.

Oyebade said, “We are protesting against our mandate that was stolen. It was a daylight robbery, a monumental disaster. The APC delegated some people to Ondo State to conduct the primary, apparently, that was never done. They remained in Akure and started writing results.”

In the same vein, three aspirants in the election, Mr Wale Akinterinwa, and one of the two female aspirants, Mrs Folakemi Omogoroye, condemned the process of the election on Sunday, demanding the cancellation of the whole exercise.

In the same vein, the Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Mr Ojo Oyewamide, on Sunday, said “the primary was a mockery of democracy.”