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| [FILE PHOTO] Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu. Photo/Twitter/GOVONDO |
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the March 9, 2019 House of Assembly election for Ondo West Constituency II, Engr Abiola Oladapo, has filed a petition at the election petition tribunal to “retrieve his mandate” from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Oladapo said this while speaking with newsmen in Akure. He called for the cancellation of the election that produced APC candidate, Adewale Adewinle as winner, based on gross irregularities and intimidation of voters.
He stated that the conduct of the election defied all decent, civilised and acceptable approaches to democracy, declaring that such election could not be said to have held.
“The House of Assembly elections in the state was characterised by violence, ballot snatching, ballot stuffing, vote-buying and threat to lives. The entire constituency and by extension the Ondo West and East local governments were riddled with uncivilised attitude to politics.
“All in a bid by the APC, their candidate in the constituency, Adewinle and the governor of the state, Rotimi Akeredolu to have a majority in the Assembly in connivance with the Zenith Labour Party to win the available seats in the state by all means.
“I and my party have resolved not to allow this rape of democracy go unchallenged, hence our resolve to approach the judiciary as the only democratic process available,” he said.
According to him, it was on account of those that he approached the tribunal to challenge what he described as daylight robbery against democracy, adding that such would wreck the country if it is left unchallenged.
The PDP candidate, who expressed optimism in his bid to reclaim his mandate, disclosed that the legal team he had assembled, led by Remi Olatubora, a former commissioner and Attorney General of the state would do justice to the case.
Oladapo argued that no election in the real sense of the word took place in Ondo West Constituency II as admitted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in their report on the election.
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Oladapo said this while speaking with newsmen in Akure. He called for the cancellation of the election that produced APC candidate, Adewale Adewinle as winner, based on gross irregularities and intimidation of voters.
He stated that the conduct of the election defied all decent, civilised and acceptable approaches to democracy, declaring that such election could not be said to have held.
“The House of Assembly elections in the state was characterised by violence, ballot snatching, ballot stuffing, vote-buying and threat to lives. The entire constituency and by extension the Ondo West and East local governments were riddled with uncivilised attitude to politics.
“All in a bid by the APC, their candidate in the constituency, Adewinle and the governor of the state, Rotimi Akeredolu to have a majority in the Assembly in connivance with the Zenith Labour Party to win the available seats in the state by all means.
“I and my party have resolved not to allow this rape of democracy go unchallenged, hence our resolve to approach the judiciary as the only democratic process available,” he said.
According to him, it was on account of those that he approached the tribunal to challenge what he described as daylight robbery against democracy, adding that such would wreck the country if it is left unchallenged.
The PDP candidate, who expressed optimism in his bid to reclaim his mandate, disclosed that the legal team he had assembled, led by Remi Olatubora, a former commissioner and Attorney General of the state would do justice to the case.
Oladapo argued that no election in the real sense of the word took place in Ondo West Constituency II as admitted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in their report on the election.
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