The reinstated Labour Get together governorship candidate in Ondo State, Ayodele Olorunfemi, has bemoaned his failure to win Saturday’s election, blaming former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, and the Nigeria Labour Congress for his predicament.
Governor Fortunate Aiyedatiwa of the ruling All Progressives Congress was declared the winner by the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee after sweeping the 18 native authorities areas in Ondo.
Within the last declaration of the outcome by the State Returning Officer, Prof Olayemi Akinwumi, he stated APC’s Ayedatiwa polled a complete of 366,781 votes to defeat Agboola Ajayi of the PDP, who acquired 117,845 votes.
The Returning Officer stated, “That Ayedatiwa Fortunate Orimisan of APC, having glad the requirement of the regulation is hereby returned elected.”
Olorunfemi’s loss comes a number of days after INEC returned his identify on the poll as LP flag bearer for the November 16 ballot, following a ruling by the Courtroom of Enchantment.
Following weeks of suspense, Olorunfemi heaved a sigh of aid when the Courtroom of Enchantment in Abuja vacated an earlier judgment by the Federal Excessive Courtroom ordering the electoral umpire to recognise Obi’s anointed candidate, Olusola Ebiseni.
Reacting in an interview with The PUNCH, Olorunfemi vowed to not forgive the previous LP presidential candidate and the NLC for the position they performed in scuttling his Ondo governorship marketing campaign.
When requested if he succeeded in having a last-minute door-to-door marketing campaign along with his supporters after successful his enchantment, a saddened LP flag bearer confessed that his marketing campaign for the election was neither right here nor there.
He stated, “I’ve Peter Obi and the NLC to thank for that. They’ve scuttled my aspirations and probabilities to win this Ondo election. These folks spoilt issues for us with that PDP reject they needed to power on the celebration. Their insistence on having Ebiseni on the poll ruined all the things for me.
“They only capitalised on the disaster between the Labour Get together and the Nigeria Labour Congress to create issues. Are you able to think about that Ebiseni wrote a letter to the court docket in my identify with out my information, saying I’ve withdrawn from the race? They can’t exclude me from such a place.”
Whereas accepting that he knew his probabilities on the ballot had been slim after his reinstatement a number of days to the ballot, Olorunfemi vowed to get his pound of flesh.
The LP deputy chairman for South additionally threatened to petition police authorities to research how his identify and signature had been cast by Ebiseni and the NLC.
“Thank God we acquired an enchantment judgment and my identify is again within the INEC portal. The nice factor right here is that the reality has prevailed. Withdrawal should be voluntary. You can not power somebody to withdraw. What they’ve performed was an try to power me behind my again.
“Once more, it wasn’t the celebration that submitted it. It was the handiwork of the previous President of the NLC and head of the Nationwide Transition Committee, Abduwaheed Omar. What they did is felony.
“In truth, I’m planning to petition the Inspector Common of Police to probe how they wrote that letter, put my signature and offered it earlier than the court docket. We are going to take care of that later. For now, we’re nonetheless doing our underground work and doing our greatest for this election,” he acknowledged.
When referred to as to defend the allegation levelled in opposition to the employees’ union, performing Chairman of the NLC Political Fee, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, described Olorunfemi as a ‘very humorous character.’
“He’s one human being you need to by no means take significantly. Because of this disaster between us and Abure, Olorunfemi turned the deputy to Abure and he was given the ticket. Earlier than this election, he was a placeholder. So what did he do? He now began looking for who would purchase the ticket from him.
“Within the course of, they requested Ebiseni to pay N20m to get the ticket. He paid and even added one other N5m which they claimed was for bills. After they refused to present him the ticket, Ebiseni went to court docket. In retaliation, the Abure’s camp began working to make sure INEC didn’t add his identify due to the Kagaroo judgment they went to safe.
“The one problem now we have was that earlier than the judgment, INEC had already given the code for importing the names of brokers to Olorunfemi. We all know he would have uploaded the names of suspected APC brokers there. We all know he’s clearly working not directly for the APC.”
As of the time of submitting this story, efforts to succeed in each Obi and Ebiseni for reactions had been unsuccessful.
