Ondo Governorship Election: INEC Declares APC’s Rotimi Akeredolu Winner

                           

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu, winner of the 2016 Ondo state governorship election.

He polled 244, 842 votes, beating his closest rival, Eyitayo Jegede, of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), who polled 150, 380.

Mr Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy, (AD) follows with 126, 889 votes.

See summary Of Results here.

Returning officer, Professor Ganiu Amali made the announcement at about 12:50 pm on Sunday.

With this victory, the governor-elect and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Akeredolu, is expected to take over from the incumbent Governor, Dr, Olusegun Mimiko of the PDP.

In the meantime, the governor-elect has described his victory as a clear demonstration of the will of the people of Ondo state.

He believes that “the people have spoken and have indeed spoken well”, as he would go straight into work, to bring about improvement in all aspects of the state’s economy.

According to him, “there has been obvious neglect of people in the rural areas, and his government will focus more on grass-root development.

This is the second time he would be contesting to be governor of Ondo state.

He lost the first time to Governor Olusegun Mimiko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The election which many had feared would be characterized by violence, given the tension that preceded the exercise, was however adjudged peaceful.

Although violence erupted a day before the polls took off, leading to the unfortunate killing of one person, the Federal Government ensured the deployment of 26,000 policemen and 15,000 personnel from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, to avoid a further breakdown of law and order.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), had dropped Mr Eyitayo Jegede and published the name of Mr Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP candidate, forcing Jegede to head to the court of appeal to retrieve his ticket.

However, few days to the election, the court of appeal announced Jegede as the rightful candidate of the party, after a go- ahead by the supreme court.

Mr Jegede, then called for the postponement of the election to enable him campaign for the election, but the electoral body said it would not shift the election, as it had printed and initiated processes for the election.