A coalition of registered political parties in Ogun State has rejected the outcome of Saturday’s governorship election held in the state.
The coalition, comprising 11 out of the 13 parties that participated in the election, said it rejected the outcome of the governorship election because it was far from the wish of the people.
The convener of the coalition and chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Olaposi Oginni, while addressing newsmen in Abeokuta on Friday, said the Ogun State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Niyi Ijalaye, must be removed and prosecuted.
Track news recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had through its Returning Officer, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, declared the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the governorship poll in Ogun.
Adebowale said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lost the election with about 13, 000 votes, having scored 262, 383 votes to queue behind the APC that polled 276, 298 votes.
But the registered political parties said: “It was obvious that INEC stood logic in the head by making a pronouncement of a winner in an election in which the number of cancelled votes tripled the margin of lead between the acclaimed winner and the closest rival.”
Speaking, Oginni said: “The Ogun Coalition of Registered Political Parties hereby calls for the immediate suspension of the Ogun State Resident Electoral Commissioner and immediate arrest and prosecution of Prof. Kayode Adebowale, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, for this heinous crime against our democracy.”
Oginni called on all lovers of democracy across the globe to beam their searchlights on Ogun State “as we are all struggling to bring back hope to the electorate and good people of Ogun State.”
Oginni further said: “We hereby call for the return of the stolen mandate of Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu of the Peoples Democratic Party, who is generally believed to be the actual winner of the March 18th, 2023 governorship election in Ogun State.”
The coalition alleged that the election was “massively rigged with lots of irregularities.”
“Once again, we are appealing to all relevant agencies including INEC to do the needful in the interest of good governance and development of our democracy,” Oginni stated.
Leaders of other political parties at the press briefing include Sola Coker of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Sanyaolu Abayomi of the Action Alliance (AA), Kehinde Ogunbiyi of Because Of Our Tomorrow (BOOT), Biola Martins of the Action Peoples Party (APP), Prince Yemi Alli of the National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Tokunbo Peters of the Labour Party (LP).
Others are Oyatayo Samson of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Adesina Afolabi of the African Action Congress (AAC), Olufunke Olanrewaju of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and Oke Rotimi Michael of the Accord Party.
