Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on Saturday in Akure, emerged as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State.
Akeredolu, who was APC Flag bearer in 2012 governorship election, won the party’s primary election with 669 votes, defeating his closest opponent, Chief Olusegun Abraham, who scored 635 votes.
Chief Olusola Oke, former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP stalwart who defected to APC scored 576 votes and Senator Ajayi Boroffice scored 471 votes to come third and fourth respectively.
Gov. Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa, who was the Electoral Committee Chairman for the primary, announced the result that declared Rotimi Akeredolu(SAN) as winner and candidate of the party.
“Having score the highest votes, I hereby declare Akeredolu Oluwarotimi as the winner and Ondo APC governorship candidate,” he said.
Abubakar noted that 24 aspirants earlier contested for the election while one Paul Akintelure officially withdrew his candidacy before the commencement of the election.
Abubakar also congratulated other aspirants for promptly conceding defeat, and urged them to team up with the winner and work together to enable the party to win the Nov.26 governorship election.
The governor commended the 2774 delegates that participated in the primary election in the state and party leaders for their conduct, which he said led to a free, fair and credible primary.
“2774 delegates participated and 24 aspirants contested for the election while seven votes were invalid,” he said.
In his acceptance speech, Akeredolu appreciated the electoral committee and the delegates for the free, fair and credible primary election that saw his emergence as the party’s candidate for the Nov.26 governorship election.
Akeredolu also thanked all the aspirants for the wonderful campaign.
“Today our great party as produced candidate for governorship election in Ondo State.
“We are looking forward to all aspirants working together as a family to win the next election in Ondo State,” Akeredolu said.
Meanwhile, Oke has condemned the emergence of Akeredolu as the party’s candidate for the governorship election.
Speaking through the Director-General of his campaign, Bola Fisayo, on Sunday, Oke said the election was not a true reflection of the delegates that participated in the primary on Saturday
Oke, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2012 governorship election, alleged that the names of some of the delegates were removed from the delegates’ list while non-delegates were allowed to vote in the election.
He explained that the list of delegates handed over to the aspirants at a meeting with the Presidency was different from the list of delegates brought by the Chairman of the Election Committee and Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar.
He said the delegates’ list was shown to the aspirants at the eleventh hour and there was no adequate time for scrutiny of the list by most of the aspirants.
He alleged further that about 110 names belonging to his camp were removed from both Ondo East and West Local Governments while their names were replaced with non-executive members of the party.
He said, “There was nothing we could do at that particular time. I can confirm to you that 80 per cent of those that cast their votes for Abraham came from Oke’s camp.
“The election did not represent the true position of the delegates, the accreditation gave room for manipulation and the whole process was laced with fraud and the result released did not represent the true reflection of the delegates as non-delegates were allowed to participate in the election.”
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