The Ondo State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, on Monday accused the Labour Party of compromising the by-election held in Ilaje and Ese Odo Local Government Areas and was declared inconclusive by the electoral body.
According to a PDP Chieftain in the State, Oluwole Moneyin, “places where the PDP were turning out to lead, the Labour Party (LP) and its agents with obvious and overt evidences subverted the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission, the security (and) compromised the process”. Moneyin claimed that agents of the LP had engaged in various illegal activities including theft of ballot boxes which were taken into the forest.
The special adviser to the State governor on special matters was also accused of driving ballot boxes into a river.
He mentioned a case of a LP member in Arogbo ward II, who had a meeting with security agencies “in their gun boat” and rode off with them, after which theft of ballot boxes began.
Although the results declared by INEC revealed that the LP had 23,926 votes while the PDP candidate polled 22,628 out of over 56,000 valid polls cast, Moneyin, who was a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, insisted that efforts to conduct a successful election “were marred by the party in power.”
Seven political parties including the All Progressives Congress, Labour Party and the Peoples’ Democratic Party participated in the election.
However, Moneyin said the LP was fond of operating outside the laid down procedures and that those who decamped from the PDP to the LP were “the diseases” which gave PDP a bad name when it was in power.
He also claimed that the governor had relocated to Okitipupa, a neigbouring community to both Ilaje and Ese Odo in a desperate attempt to gain popularity and acceptance in the two areas which were strongholds of the PDP.
Mr Moneyin approved of INEC’s decision, noting that “what the INEC has done is to follow the laid down procedures simply because the elections were inconclusive.”
On presenting evidence of illegal acts carried out by agents of the LP, Moneyin said: “We have these evidences. When they do contest it, in the appropriate ambiences, we will bring it out to them.”
