The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ondo governorship election held on Saturday, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, has won the keenly contested election.
He was on Sunday declared winner of the 2016 Ondo state governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Akeredolu polled 244,842 votes, to beat his closest rival, Eyitayo Jegede, of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), who polled 150,380. Mr Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy, (AD) follows with 126,889 votes.
Returning officer, Professor Ganiu Amali made the announcement at about 12:50 pm on Sunday.
With this victory, the governor-elect and candidate of APC, Mr Akeredolu, is expected to take over from the incumbent Governor, Dr, Olusegun Mimiko of the PDP.
In the meantime, the governor-elect has described his victory as a clear demonstration of the will of the people of Ondo state.
He believes that “the people have spoken and have indeed spoken well”, as he would go straight to work to bring about improvement in all aspects of the state’s economy.
According to him, “there has been obvious neglect of people in the rural areas, and his government will focus more on grass-root developme
According to Ambali, the total number of valid votes stood at 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.
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.
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.”
PDP flag bearer Jegede 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.
Jegede, who spoke with newsmen in Akure few hours after Akeredolu was declared the winner of the poll, 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.”
