Outcome of Ondo election reflects wishes of electorate —INEC

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that the outcome of the just-concluded governorship election in Ondo State is a reflection the wishes of the electorate as expressed in the ballot box, contrary to speculations making the round in some quarters that the process was manipulated.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Olusegun Agbaje, made the disclosure while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, shortly after the presentation of the Certificate of Return to the winner of the election, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He however said “it is the civic right of any aggrieved political party to go to court on the outcome of the governorship election”, even as he insisted that INEC did not connive with any of the 28 political parties that took part in the election, as being alleged in some quarters.

“But if, at the end of the day, it is confirmed that INEC connived to perpetrate illegality, I offer to be personally held responsible and be dealt with accordingly”, the Ondo REC said, while appealing to politicians to trust the commission as their own Election Management Body (EMB), as “this is the only way the political parties could grow and sustain the nation’s democracy”.

Agbaje further said, “INEC is prepared to assist all parties having internal challenges through its Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism or through its collaboration with Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), etc, especially as it continues the journey to Rivers, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states and the big one, the 2019 general election.

“The journey towards the accomplishment of success in the Ondo State Governorship Election was not completely smooth. This was mainly due to the attitude of some political party leaders and contestants, which include negative utterances that instill fear on the minds of the citizenry and unnecessarily overheated the political environment in the run up to the election and peddling of unfounded allegations against INEC and her staff to distract them among others

“In addition, the court order and counter-court order received by different factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from courts of equal jurisdiction posed another grave challenge to INEC.

“The commission was however undaunted as it focused all her efforts at creating the needed level-playing field for all the 28 political parties that nominated candidates for the election and a very conducive atmosphere for the registered voters in Ondo State to vote for the candidate of their choice.

“Accordingly, the commission continued to work very hard round the clock, in collaboration with other critical stakeholders, to assemble the necessary machinery needed to guarantee the conduct of free, fair, credible and acceptable election.

“The successful outcome of the Ondo State governorship election would not have been possible without the cooperation of the electorate who came out peacefully to vote for the candidate of their choice

“This is a vindication of our repeated statement of assurance to all stakeholders that only the people of Ondo State would decide the winner of the Ondo State governorship election and not INEC”.

Speaking on the alleged manipulation of Smart Card Reader (SCR) in some parts of the state to favour a particular candidate, Agbaje said, “In six polling units at RA 05 PUs 001,002,003 and 004 as well as RA 08 with PUs 006 and 009 in Ilaje Local Government Area, it is incorrect to say that SCRs were pre-loaded”.

“What happened was that during the purging of the 4,208 smart cards used for the election, only six SCRs were mistakenly not properly purged. Obviously, they could not be accessed until the INEC technical crew got there and cleared the old figures before the machines could be used. There was also no single PU in the state where election did not take place because of SCR malfunction”.

He also dismissed as untrue the claim that PDP was not given enough time to change its agents after its candidate in the election, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), was pronounced the party’s authentic flag-bearer.

“On Tuesday, 24 November, 2016 when the PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) and party chairman, Mr Clement Faboyede, led a team of protesters to the INEC State headquarters, I told them that the commission, on Wednesday evening, pasted the publication of his nomination as PDP candidate, following the Appeal Court order at the state office and the local government area offices, the following morning.

“I also informed them that all the local government areas had received the party’s new agents list and that PDP’s state agent, Mr Ayo Fadaka, earlier that morning, witnessed the receipt of the sensitive materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the INEC Office and the distribution to local government areas that followed.

“It is also instructive to state that the soft copy of the voters register was released to the Eyitayo Jegede Campaign Organisation’s Director of Publicity, Mr Ayo Fadaka”, he said, adding that the alleged romance of INEC with APC was “not only untrue, but highly embarrassing”.