THREE POLITICAL PARTIES DEMAND RE-RUN OF SENATORIAL POLL IN OGUN-EAST

The Coordinator of the Group, Prince Yomi Solanke who led placards carrying protesters with a petition said the Returning Officer for the Senatorial election, Prof. Chris Nwoka had on March 24th  declared the election as inconclusive due to cancellation of election result in Ajebandele Ward in Ijebu East Local Government because of some irregularities

Penpushing further reports that, Solanke,  a  former Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ikenne Local Government of the State, said  it was amazing that 48hours after the pronouncement by the commission, the authorities came out to announce candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Lekan Mustapha as the winner.

“When we heard this terrible news, we protested, the fact that INEC is colluding with the ruling party, APC to rig  out  Candidate, Engr. Ayoola Sosanwo of PDP out of the election because rather than announcing anybody as the winner after declaring an election inconclusive, what legally should follow is a rerun election in the affected areas”

“We are therefore very happy when we saw it in Guardian Newspapers of Tuesday where Ogun East was listed as part of the country where rerun election will hold this Saturday alongside Governorship and House of Assembly elections. We were however surprised when we visited Resident Commissioner of INEC on Tuesday telling us that he was never aware and that he would get back to us”

Solanke added “this is Thursday, less than 48 hours to the election but we have heard nothing from INEC so, we have no choice than to come around to register our displeasure and demand for justice. All we are asking for is a rerun election in Ajebandele ward which is a PDP stronghold with over 13,000 registered voters as well as Ijebu Ilese Ward 3 in Ijebu North East local government and Ward 10 in Sagamu local Government”.

Penpushing also reports that, as at the time of filing this report, Solanke   disclosed that Resident Commissioner for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the State, Prof Ganiyu Raji after collecting the petition from him promised to get back to the political group before the close of work on Thursday.

Meanwhile, some of the placards were with inscriptions such as; ‘INEC, all we are asking for is rerun election in Ogun East’, ‘INEC, respect rule of law, never allow 2,000 votes to override 13,000 votes at Ajebandele’,  ‘Our votes must count in Ogun East’ among others.