Following the defeat of its candidate, Eyitayo Jegede in the Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged that the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, manipulated the poll to favour the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Recall that Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared winner of the keenly contested election after polling 244, 842 votes to beat his closest challenger, Jegede who polled 150, 380 votes.
Reacting to the outcome of the poll, the National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, in a statement issued on Monday rejected the outcome of the poll, insisting it will appeal the result.
The party described the result declared by the INEC as a “charade and not the true reflection of the will of the people of Ondo State.”
According to the statement, PDP claimed that INEC has “graduated from inconclusive elections as seen in Kogi, Bayelsa, Osun, FCT, Imo, Nassarawa and some other previous by-elections in the Country to ‘Advanced Election Rigging’, as in the case of Edo and Ondo States Gubernatorial Elections.”
It reads further, “In view of the fact that the election was blatantly manipulated from the beginning to the end to favour the APC, we vehemently reject the results of the November 26, 2016 gubernatorial election in Ondo State. The election and all actions leading to it fall short of laid down principles guiding conduct of elections in Nigeria.
“We have instructed our candidate and the Ondo State Chapter of our party to proceed to the Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election. We call on the judiciary to redeem Nigeria’s image on this matter as we request for the total cancellation of the election in Ondo State.
“It is common knowledge that the APC agents openly bought votes of the electorates in the full glare of security operatives who did nothing to prevent such dastardly violation of the Electoral Law.
“It is not surprising that the electorates in Ondo state became so vulnerable to the corruptive influence of the APC because of the harsh economic situation in the country inflicted on Nigerians by the APC administration which have indeed made all Nigerians virtually beggars in their own country.
“Nigerians will recall that we had persistently called for the postponement of the Election before Saturday, for at least two weeks to enable our party campaign and prepare properly for this election as a result of the setback orchestrated by Justice Okon Abang and the charlatans in PDP who allowed themselves to be used by the APC to destroy our chances in the Ondo State Election.
“The actions of INEC in collaboration with the APC led administration left us no time to campaign and sell our candidate and party manifesto to the electorates in Ondo State. Our persistent call for the postponement of the election which was backed and supported by more than 20 other political parties were all rejected by INEC which were acting the script of the APC.
“It was a carefully planned and well orchestrated strategy to rig the election well in advance by preventing the PDP from planning and campaigning for the election. The APC has hereby introduced a new formula of rigging election in Nigeria.”
Also, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, had yesterday claimed that the INEC connived with APC to rig the Ondo Governorship election in advance.
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