A former President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu has emerged as the candidate of the All
Progressives Congress for the November 26, 2016 governorship election.
Akeredolu who was the candidate of the defunct
Action Congress of Nigeria in the 2012 governorship election, scored 669 votes
in a governorship primary held at the International Event Centre, Akure, the
Ondo State capital on Saturday.
He defeated the anointed candidate of a national
leader of the party, Dr. Segun Abraham who polled 635 while Chief Olusola Oke
came third, scoring 583. Senator Ajayi Boroffice came forth with 471 votes.
Twenty-four aspirants initially contested the poll but Dr. Paul Akintelure was
later announced to have officially stepped down.
According to the
Electoral Committee Chairman, and Jigawa State Governor, Muhammed Abubakar, a
total of 2,744 voters were accredited.
The exercise was
conducted under tight security as thousands of security agents from the
Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps
as well as men of the Directorate of Security Services were deployed in
Akure to maintain law and order.
The exercise took off at
about 8am with accreditation of delegates at three different centres in Akure
while the voting started at about 12pm at the International Event Centre,
Akure, ended at 6.30pm.
The delegates from the
three senatorial districts of the state, were accredited at the three
designated centres.
During the accreditation,
some delegates were sent out of the centres on the grounds that they were not
financial members of the party. They were ushered out of the accreditation
centres by the security agents.
The officials of the
Independent National Electoral Commission led by the Administrative Secretary
in Ondo State, Mr. Kabir Omosanya, were also at the venue to monitor the
exercise.
Before the voting
started, it was gathered that some of the aspirants were paid as much as
N150,000, N100,000, N50,000 to each of their delegate in order to buy
their votes.
However, the embattled
chairman of the party, Mr. Isaac Kekemeke was absent at the exercise. His
absence according to a source, was not unconnected with his purported
impeachment by the two-thirds majority of the State Executive Committee of the
state following an alleged anti-party activities.
Meanwhile, the Ondo State
men of the Police Command and their Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps
counterparts engaged in a free-for-all at the venue.
The brawl began following
a disagreement between the two security agencies disrupting the primary for
about 10 minutes as a result of the ugly development.
The law enforcers
shot sporadically into the air and fired several tear-gas canisters as many APC
supporters and delegates who were at the venue to vote, ran for safety.
It was gathered
that the policemen allegedly confronted the NSCDC officers for refusing to
stand up and salute whenever their (police) bosses were at the venue.
The state
Commandant of the NSCDC, Adeyinka Fasau, was reportedly asked by mobile
policemen to get down from his vehicle at the gate of the venue and trek about
100 metres to the building where the voting was taking place.
It took the
intervention of some officers of the state police command, led by the state
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, and some senior officers of the
NSCDC to resolve the crisis.
Meanwhile, the Labour
Party in Ondo State has elected Stephen Adeuti as its governorship candidate
for the state’s November 26 election.
The party held its
governorship primary at the Royal Bird Hotels, Alagbaka, Akure, the state
capital.
At the primary monitored
by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Adeuti emerged unopposed
following his adoption by the party’s delegates after his only opponent at the
primary, Olugbenga Ojo, stepped down for him.
The returning officer for
the primary and Deputy National Chairman of the party, Ladi Iliya, commended
the aspirants for demonstrating sportsmanship and charged them to continue to
work together to ensure the party’s success in the forthcoming governorship
poll.
..Punch
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