Politics
Ondo election: APC vows to take over Osun, Oyo states in future polls
…as Gov. Aiyedatiwa wins all LGs; again, polls marred by voter apathy
At last Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has come back to govern Ondo State.
He has won the Ondo State governorship election and cleared all the eighteen local governments in the State.
The governor defeated the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr Agboola Ajayi, by posting the highest votes.
When the total votes were announced by the returning officer, Aiyedatiwa scored 366,781 votes, the PDP candidate Ajayi, who came second, polled 117,835 votes across the 18 local government areas of Ondo State.
The ELECTION RESULTS
As declared
1– Akure North
APC 14, 451
PDP 5, 787
2–Okitipupa
APC 26, 811
PDP 10, 233
3—Akoko Northeast
APC 25, 657
PDP 5, 072
4—Akure South
APC 32, 969
PDP 17, 926
5—Ose –
APC 16, 555
PDP 4, 472
6—Akoko Northwest
APC (25, 010)
PDP 5, 502
7—Akoko Southeast –
APC 12, 140
PDP 2, 692
8—Ondo West
APC 20, 755
PDP 6, 387
9—Owo
APC 31, 914
PDP 4, 740
10– -Akoko Southwest
APC 29, 700
PDP 5, 517
11— Irele
APC 17, 117
PDP 6, 601
12– -Ifedore
APC 14, 157
PDP 5, 897
13— Ondo East
APC 8, 163
PDP 2, 843
14 — Ile Oluji/Oke-Igbo
APC 16, 600
PDP 4, 442
15 —–ldanre
APC 9, 114
PDP 8, 940
Ilaje LG
APC 24,474
PDP 3623
LP 176
Ese Odo LG
APC 14511
PDP 7814
Odigbo LG
APC 26683
PDP 9348
However, election observers, who monitored the conduct expressed dissatisfaction, as a result of the shoddy performance of INEC, after so much assurances, and also the significantly voter apathy. They also worried about the high incidence of vote buying by the candidates, which makes elections transactional, and unrepresentative.
The process was marked by long delays as collations were often suspended for long hours for the arrivals of result materials from distant areas, such as Ilaje. They wondered why IRev is used as only a secondary source of result verification, rather than an alternative portal.
Speaking to newsmen in Akure, Ganduje said: “Our next target is this geo-political zone, the southwest geo-political zone, and you know we are good in hitting our targets, that is Osun State and Oyo State. We assure you that we will do all what is possible to bring them into the fold so that we have political homogeneity in the southwest geo-political zone.”
“There’s no doubt this is a moment of joy, seeing is believing, and this is democracy in action, but what is more important is that all the major stakeholders in conducting this election believe that the election is free, fair and credible, especially INEC, which provided the logistics arrangement, the manpower arrangement,” he said.
