The governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Agboola Ajayi, has vowed to challenge the result of Saturday’s poll released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday.
INEC had on November 17 declared the incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the winner of the election after polling 366,781 votes to defeat Ajayi with 117,845 votes.
However, Ajayi said the election did not reflect the true will of the people as it was allegedly marred by irregularities.
He recalled that his party had expressed a lack of faith in the Ondo Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to conduct a credible poll, but their concerns were not considered.
In a statement on Tuesday, issued by his special adviser on media and publicity, Ayo Fadaka, Ajayi said he has huge evidence to present in court.
He accused INEC of manipulating the results to favour the ruling party.
“Since the conclusion of voting on Saturday, 16th November, we have kept mute and put in the process an investigation of the contents of criminality prosecuted by both APC and the INEC.
“In view of the foregoing, we have uncovered lots of actions undertaken to compromise the electoral desires of the people and sadly conclude that democracy cannot thrive in an environment where unabated criminality is perpetually perpetrated in the prosecution of an election by the agency (INEC) saddled with the onerous and sacred responsibility to protect our franchise and deliver its mandate at the end of every election.
“November 16th election, like every other election conducted by INEC since APC assumed power in 2015, continues in the tradition of hijacking the process and delivering results that are diametrically in contrast with expressed electoral desires, thus resulting in promoting voters apathy and total disenchantment with the electoral process.
“In summary, we reject the results of the Nov 16th election and will take legal actions to reverse the debauchery. That is the option available to us, and we are hopeful that man and God, who is the ultimate, will give us justice. It is time we begin to eschew criminality from our electoral process.” he said.