The incumbent and candidate of the Labour Party in the Ondo State Governorship election, Dr. Olusegun Rahman Mimiko, is in a comfortable lead as counting progressed in the election held on Saturday.
From the results of the 15 local government areas already officially released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mimiko appears set for victory and re-election, a feat never achieved by anyone before in the state.
So far, Mimiko has received 218,874 votes while the Action Congress of Nigeria’s Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu is in a distant second position with 119,983 votes and Barrister Olusola Oke of the Peoples Democratic Party garnering 117,113 votes.
But the ACN has said the election was marred by irregularities and widespread violence that either scared away many voters or significantly affected voting in
many polling units.
In a statement issued on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, from the the party’s Election Situation Room, the ACN said the violence was caused by inadequate security, as most of the security agents deployed for the election were only able to effectively cover the urban areas, inadvertently leaving the rural areas thinly secured and paving the way for thugs to have a free rein.
Also, the delay and inadequacy of election materials and the absence of election officials in many polling units, especially in the rural areas, did not create a conducive environment for a free, fair and credible election, the party said.
The party said long before voting started, it had been warning about the violence in many areas, including Idanre, Okitipupa and Owo, where the Ondo State Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Niran Sule, and the Chairman of Owo Local Government Area, Mr. Akinrogbe, were arrested after they were found with six AK-47 guns in the early hours of the day.
“Despite the denial of the arrests by the state government, we insist that these men were indeed arrested after they were found with weapons,” Mohammed said in the statement.
The ACN said the general impression about the election being largely devoid of violence stemmed from the fact that media coverage was concentrated on the urban areas, whereas most of the violence was perpetrated in the rural areas.
The party gave some instances of the violence it said undoubtedly impacted negatively on the peaceful conduct of the election:
At Idanre: Thugs believed to have been hired by the Labour party exploited the inadequate security to scare away ACN voters.
The affected areas include Erido, Ajegunle, Iwonja, Owomofewa, Orileye, Ago Joshua and Iramuje. In all these areas and beyond, thugs on motorcycles harassed agents and supporters of the ACN, in addition to stuffing ballot boxes which they moved to polling booths with the protection of Labour Party thugs.
At Okitipupa: Thugs invaded several polling units and carried away ballot papers. Also, when it was time for collation of results, there was no security at the collation centre there.
At Ondo West, Ward 4, Unit 6: ACN agents in several polling units, including Mr. Kolawole Babawale, were barred from the polling units because INEC allegedly made a mistake by not inserting ‘ACN’ in the agents’ tags it issued to him. This amounts to INEC punishing ACN for its own (electoral body) mistake.
At Ose: Ballot papers were snatched by hoodlums. Similar violence was reported in Ile Oluji, Ondo East, Ondo West and Ifedore.
At Ifon Ward 6: A Toyota Camry with registration AE820 REL was caught with stuffed ballot papers.
The ACN said: “An election that witnessed these documented cases of violence and irregularities cannot be adjudged to be free and fair. An election in which many voters were disenfranchised by violence or lack of election materials does not meet the basic requirements of a credible poll. This is our stand.”
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