The Labour Party governorship candidate in the just concluded Ondo State election, Ayodele Olorunfemi, has bemoaned his failure to win Saturday’s election. This is even as heaped his failure on the former Anambra State Governor, and the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.
Recall that Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Sunday declared Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the ruling All Progressives Congress winner of the November 16 election. Aiyedatiwa won the election after sweeping the 18 Local Government Areas in the State.
Declaring of the result, the State Returning Officer, Prof Olayemi Akinwumi, said APC’s Ayedatiwa polled a total of 366,781 votes to defeat Agboola Ajayi of the PDP, who got 117,845 votes.
The Returning Officer said, “That Ayedatiwa Lucky Orimisan of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby returned elected.”
However, the LP candidate, Olorunfemi has bemoaned his loss at the polls.
Recall that the LP candidate faced many challenges prior to the election. This was even as his name was delisted from the INEC lists of candidates for the election in the State.
However, few days to the election, Olorunfemi’s name was included for the election following a ruling by the Court of Appeal.
Recall that earlier, a Federal High Court had sacked Olorunfemi and ordered that INEC recognize Olusola Ebiseni as candidate of LP.
However, Olorunfemi heaved a sigh of relief when the Court of Appeal in Abuja vacated the judgment by the Federal High Court few weeks to the election.
Speaking on the outcome of the election, Olorunfemi vowed not to forgive the former LP presidential candidate and the NLC. He blamed them for their role in scuttling his Ondo governorship campaign.
Olurunfemi said, “I have Peter Obi and the NLC to thank for that. They have scuttled my aspirations and chances to win this Ondo election. These people spoilt things for us with that PDP reject they wanted to force on the party. Their insistence on having Ebiseni on the ballot ruined everything for me.
“They just capitalized on the crisis between the Labour Party and the Nigeria Labour Congress to create problems. Can you imagine that Ebiseni wrote a letter to the court in my name without my knowledge? Saying I have withdrawn from the race. They cannot exclude me from such a position.”
Giving the circumstances before the election, Olurunfemi said he knew his chances at the poll were slim. He, however, vowed to get his pound of flesh.
This is even as he has threatened to petition police authorities to investigate how his name and signature were forged by Ebiseni and the NLC.
He said, “Thank God we got an appeal judgment and my name is back in the INEC portal. The good thing here is that the truth has prevailed. Withdrawal must be voluntary. You cannot force someone to withdraw. What they have done was an attempt to force me behind my back.
“Again, it wasn’t the party that submitted it. It was the handiwork of the former President of the NLC and head of the National Transition Committee, Abduwaheed Omar. What they did is criminal.
“In fact, I am planning to petition the Inspector General of Police to probe how they wrote that letter. Put my signature and presented it before the court. We will deal with that later. For now, we are still doing our underground work and doing our best for this election,” he stated.
However, the acting Chairman of the NLC Political Commission, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku has described Olorunfemi as a ‘very funny character.’
Ndubuaku said of him, “He is one human being you should never take seriously. As a result of this crisis between us and Abure, Olorunfemi became the deputy to Abure and he was given the ticket. Before this election, he was a placeholder. So, what did he do? He now started shopping for who would buy the ticket from him.
“In the process, they asked Ebiseni to pay N20m to get the ticket. He paid and even added another N5m which they claimed was for expenses. When they refused to give him the ticket, Ebiseni went to court. In retaliation, the Abure’s camp started working to ensure INEC didn’t upload his name because of the Kagaroo judgment they went to secure.
“The only challenge we have was that before the judgment, INEC had already given the code for uploading the names of agents to Olorunfemi. We know he would have uploaded the names of suspected APC agents there. We know he is obviously working indirectly for the APC.”
As of the time of filing this story, efforts to reach both Obi and Ebiseni for reactions were unsuccessful.
source: PUNCH
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