Controversy has trailed last Saturday’s rerun election for Ajeromi-Ifelodun Federal Constituency in Lagos State, this is just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Kolawole Taiwo winner of the exercise.
This was, however, despite opposition from the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which alleged that the rerun election was in violation of a court order barring INEC from conducting a re-run poll for the constituency until the results already announced at the various polling units and collated alongside the result of the Presidential poll are declared in accordance with the extant provisions of section 69 and 71 of the Electoral Act 2010.
Rita Orji the candidate of the PDP and her party had instituted the case.
However, Justice Bello Kawu of a High Court sitting at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, had dismissed the objection of INEC and three others against the motion for lacking in merit and substance and ruled against INEC’s decision to hold the rerun election.
Before the cancellation of the poll, Orji of the PDP was in an early lead with a difference of 3224 votes. The PDP candidate had polled 31, 982 votes, while Taiwo scored 28,758 votes.
INEC had, however, declared the February 23 election in the constituency, inconclusive due to over-voting, non-compliance with the usage of smart card readers and violence.
However, after last Saturday’s election, the Returning Officer, Olusoji Ilori, announced that APC’s Taiwo polled a total of 36,115 votes to defeat his closest rival from the PDP, Rita Orji, who got 32,557 votes.
Meanwhile the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, has faulted the conduct of last Saturday’s by-election in the constituency, describing it as an abuse of court order and a deliberate attempt to subvert the will of Nigerians.
“By going ahead to conduct an already concluded election in defiance of the ruling of the court, INEC had confirmed the fears that it had been compromised to create situations to subvert the will of the people and award the Ajeromi/Ifelodun Federal Constituency seat to the APC,” Ologbondiyan said.
Also the Lagos State chapter of the PDP has rejected the result of the election, in a statement to journalists, Monday, by factional chairman of the PDP in Lagos State, Segun Adewale, noted that Rita Orji had won the election but APC and INEC connived to cancel results in areas where PDP was leading with 3,224 votes during February 23rd Election as declared By INEC.
“It has come to our knowledge that whenever our party is leading and INEC calls for a rerun, it’s a plot specifically planned to rig the rerun with falsification of results, direct confrontation and disenfranchisement of electorates and outright rigging,” it said.
“The party calls for a cancellation of the rerun because such cannot be called an election.”
“It is on record that in the affected 71 polling units, PDP voters were chased away by dangerous weapon-wielding thugs, some uncollected PVCs were distributed to APC members they used in voting which created mismatch with their thumbs. INEC has a lot of questions to answer over this matter probably in court,” Adewale said.
When contacted, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Lagos State, Joe Igbokwe, refused to comment on the issue.
