The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the outcome of Saturday’s Ondo governorship election, describing it as a case of “advanced election rigging”.
In a statement issued by Dayo Adeyeye, its spokesman, on Monday, PDP accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of colluding with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the rig the election in favour of Rotimi Akeredolu.
“The outcome of the November 26, 2016 gubernatorial election in Ondo state, as declared by Professor Abdul-Ganiyu Ambali, the chief returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is a charade and not the true reflection of the will of the people of Ondo state,” the party said.
“INEC has however graduated from inconclusive elections as seen in Kogi, Bayelsa, Osun, FCT, Imo, Nassarawa and some other previous by-elections in the country to ‘advanced election rigging’, as in the case of Edo and Ondo states gubernatorial elections.”
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It accused the APC of taking advantage of the poverty of Ondo people by giving them money for votes.
“It is common knowledge that the APC agents openly bought votes of the electorates in the full glare of security operatives who did nothing to prevent such dastardly violation of the Electoral Law. It is not surprising that the electorate in Ondo state became so vulnerable to the corrupt influence of the APC because of the harsh economic situation in the country inflicted on Nigerians by the APC administration which has indeed made all Nigerians virtually beggars in their own country,” the PDP said.
“Nigerians will recall that we had persistently called for the postponement of the election before Saturday, for at least two weeks to enable our party campaign and prepare properly for this election as a result of the setback orchestrated by Justice Okon Abang and the charlatans in PDP who allowed themselves to be used by the APC to destroy our chances in the Ondo state election.
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“The actions of INEC in collaboration with the APC led administration left us no time to campaign and sell our candidate and party manifesto to the electorates in Ondo state. Our persistent call for the postponement of the election which was backed and supported by more than 20 other political parties were all rejected by INEC which were acting the script of the APC.
“It was a carefully planned and well orchestrated strategy to rig the election well in advance by preventing the PDP from planning and campaigning for the election. The APC has hereby introduced a new formula of rigging election in Nigeria.”
The PDP added that it had directed Eyitayo Jegede, its candidate in the election, to proceed to the election petition tribunal to challenge the outcome of the exercise.
“In view of the fact that the election was blatantly manipulated from the beginning to the end to favour the APC, we vehemently reject the results of the November 26, 2016 gubernatorial election in Ondo state.
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:The election and all actions leading to it fall short of laid down principles guiding conduct of elections in Nigeria. We have instructed our candidate and the Ondo state chapter of our party to proceed to the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.”
While calling on the judiciary to redeem Nigeria’s image on this matter, the party requested a total cancellation of the exercise.
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