Go to court, Tinubu tells PDP, others

President Bola Tinubu has advised the candidates defeated in the 2024 Ondo State governorship election to seek legal redress if dissatisfied with the outcome of the polls.

Earlier, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner of the election held across 3,933 polling units in the state’s 18 local government areas.

Mr Aiyedatiwa is the incumbent governor of the state.

According to INEC, he won in all the 18 LGAs of the state.

The INEC’s returning officer, Olayemi Akinyemi, who is the vice-chancellor of the Federal University, Lokoja, announced that the incumbent governor secured 366,781 votes to defeat the former Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 117,845.

The election was marred by irregularities, including vote-buying and violence in some parts of the state, despite the presence of security officers.

On Saturday, operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) arrested a suspected vote buyer during the election at Ward 4, Polling Unit 007, outside St Stephen’s Primary School in Akure, the state capital.

The unidentified suspect was arrested with two bags of money, apparently meant for the inducement of voters.

The supervising national commissioner of INEC for the election, Kunle Ajayi, confirmed that violent clashes erupted in the Idanre area of the state.

“We had some violent cases in Idanre,” Mr Ajayi, a professor, said during an interview on Channels TV, adding that with “two forces in the same town, ordinarily you would expect some tension.”

“Automatically, the town will be divided, some supporting the APC chairman, some supporting the PDP governorship candidate,” he added.

The APC eventually won in Idanre.

‘Go to court’

“Those dissatisfied with the outcome of the election can explore the opportunities provided by the judicial system to seek redress on areas of conflict,” a statement from Bayo Onanuga, a presidential spokesperson, stated, according to Daily Trust.

“President Tinubu believes the Ondo State election was another litmus test of the capacity of the Independent National Electoral Commission, affirming that the electoral body justified the confidence of the people with early preparations, deployment of staff and materials, and handling of the electoral process,” the statement added.

Mr Tinubu, whose victory in the 2023 presidential election was challenged in court, applauded INEC for uploading more than 98 per cent of the results on the same day of the election.

READ ALSO: Tinubu confers Nigerias second highest national honour on Indias Prime Minister

Failure to upload election results on the INEC Election Result Viewer (IReV) portal was one of the grounds on which Mr Tinubu’s victory was challenged. However, the court eventually affirmed his victory.

Mr Tinubu extolled security agencies for maintaining peace and order during the election.