APC’s Akinwunmi emerges winner of Ifako/Ijaiye bye-election

Nurudeen Akinwunmi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged the winner of the Ifako/Ijaiye Federal House of Representatives by-election held in the constituency in Lagos on Saturday.

Akinwumi emerged winner by polling a total of 7640 votes to defeat his opponents including his arch rival, Babatope Akinyele, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 1771 votes.

When declaring the results of the election which witnessed a low turnout of voters, the Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof.  Clement Aghatise, announced that Akinwunmi polled the highest votes of 7640 and had thus fulfilled the elections’ obligations as enshrined in the constitution to be declared winner.

Giving more details of the election results, Aghatise said that in all, the total number of registered voters was 339, 864; total number of accredited voters was 10, 051; total number of valid votes was  9689; the total number of invalid votes was 195, while the total votes cast were 9884.

He also declared the scores of other contesting parties, including SDP which polled five votes; AA, 14 votes; ADC 158 votes, while AD had 101 votes.

In all, a total of six political parties contested in the election, and they were: Action Alliance (AA), Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Democratic Party (ADC), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP).

When officially announcing the winner, Professor Aghatise, said, ”I, Professor Clement Edokpayi Aghatise, hereby certify that I was the Returning Officer of Ifako/Ijaiye Federal Constituency by-election held on December3.”

”That the election was contested, and that Mr Nurudeen Akinwunmi of APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and should return as elected,” he added.

In their reactions to the outcome of the election, a number of the political parties that participated in the exercise expressed their dissatisfaction with the results announced.

In a chat with the media, an agent of ADC, Mr Chidi Williams, said, ”There were lots of malpractices in the exercise; it was not really free and fair. We had records that some people who had lost their PVCs were allowed to vote in some polling units.”

He insisted that INEC must be seen to have truly detached itself from political parties and must truly remain nonpartisan, as it was expected to be.

Similarly, a PDP representative at the collation centre, Mr Sunday Kudehindu, accused the ruling party, APC of inducing voters with money.

Kudehindu maintained that INEC had not truly proven to be unbiased.

Meanwhile, the APC representative at the centre, refused to talk to press, saying that he was acting on the party’s order not to grant any interview to journalists.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of the former representative of Ifako-Ijaiye in the House of Representatives, Mr Elijah Adewale, who died in Abuja on July 20.