By Nurat Uthman
The Labour Party in Ogun State has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission against issuing a certificate of return to the governor of the state, Dapo Abiodun, for a second term.
The party also called for a rerun of the governorship election held on March 18, saying it is rejecting Abiodun’s victory.
The INEC returning officer for the governorship and state assembly election in the state, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, had on Sunday, declared governor Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the election.
Adebowale said Abiodun polled a total of 276,298 votes, while Ladi Adebutu of the Peoples Democratic Party scored 262,383 and was the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress.
The party, in a statement signed by its Caretaker Committee chairman, Lookman Jagun. after its executive meeting, said that the election which brought Abiodun as the winner was characterised by evidential cases of disruption of voting, ballot box snatching, burning of ballot papers in opposition strongholds and manipulating the voting and collation process.
Labour party described the declaration by the INEC as a premature declaration that is clearly against the prescribed electoral rules.
“The Labour Party as a coalition partner with the PDP in the gubernatorial election totally condemns the declaration of Abiodun as the winner of the election.
“The election should have been declared as inconclusive and a rerun conducted in areas where voting was disrupted by APC thugs,” the statement read.
The party, therefore, called for a rerun in areas where voting was disrupted by APC thugs, arguing that this was the only way that the outcome of the election would be a true reflection of the wishes of the electorate.
Similarly, the LP governorship candidate, Kehinde Sogunle, who had announced his alignment with Adebutu ahead of the election, said the APC candidate was only able to defeat the PDP candidate with less than 14,000 votes, while the cancelled votes in the election were 33,000 votes.
“Awarding Dapo Abiodun a certificate of return with the glaring fraud that characterised the election will amount to a rape of Democracy.
“The Labour Party is also not unmindful of the dastardly role of the Ogun state government in creating discord, acrimony and disunity within the Labour Party and its clandestine role in thwarting the nomination and listing of the candidates of the Labour Party to contest elective offices in the last election in Ogun state.”
The APC had earlier said that the governor won the election square and fair.
The APC’s State Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, posited that the election itself was largely peaceful and the outcome was a true reflection of the wishes of the good people of Ogun State.
He said, “we all witnessed how these desperate politicians band their gullible followers, bent on wrestling power by force, broke all rules of civility and violated electoral guidelines with reckless abandon.”
“Our party, the All Progressives Congress, not only won the election with majority votes but also won in 12 of the 20 Local Government Areas in Ogun State. In addition, our party won 17 out of the 26 State House of Assembly constituency seats.”
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