‘Aiyedatiwa’s financial strength earned him victory in Ondo’

• Awude urges PDP’s Ajayi, others to accept poll outcome
•Aiyedatiwa, deputy get certificates of return tomorrow
•Adeleke tackles Ganduje over plot to hijack Osun in 2026

The deputy governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the Ondo State election on Saturday, Dayo Awude, whose name was substituted along with the standard-bearer of the party, Sola Ebiseni, a few hours before the poll, has stressed that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of All Progressives Congress (APC) acquired victory with his financial strength.

While advising the contestants against the usual temptation of approaching the election tribunal, he urged them to accept the outcome in good faith. Tomorrow, the winners of Saturday’s election, Governor Aiyedatiwa and his running mate, Olayide Adelami, will receive their certificates of return from the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC).

Meanwhile, Governor Ademola Adeleke has described the statement credited to the National Chairman of APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, that Osun State would be the next victim of the party in 2026, as a threat to democracy and peace in the South West.

According to Awude, the inability of Ebiseni to be on the ballot and rescue the state was due to the crisis that erupted in the build-up to the poll, which he said led to a court order.

The names of Ebiseni and Awude were substituted on the INEC portal following a court order that reinstated Ayo Olorunfemi as the LP candidate. Awude, who described the development as heart-wrenching, however, urged Ayedatiwa to use his victory as a tool of service to God and Ondo people.

He said: “I can say with all sense of responsibility that we put our best into the exercise in terms of reaching out to the grassroots, but then the unexpected jolted the process. Despite the removal of our names, some of our supporters still voted for LP. To this set of people, I say thank you. To our original teaming supporters who were part of the process till the point of our names being removed, I also say thank you.

“I hope and pray that vote trading will become a thing of the past in our electoral system. The show of force at play in the election decided where the pendulum of victory swung. I would have been happier if this victory was won without the vote bazaar that characterised it.”
INEC said the ceremony would be held at its headquarters in Abuja by 11.00 a.m.

Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, disclosed this in an invitation to journalists yesterday. Aiyedatiwa defeated his closest rival, Agboola Ajayi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with 366,781 votes against 117,845.

APC was declared the winner in all 18 local councils of the state. LP and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) polled 1,162 and 2,692 votes, respectively.
GANDUJE had, after INEC declared Aiyedatiwa winner of Ondo poll on Sunday, said the APC’s next target was to take over Osun in 2026.

However, in a statement to journalists in Osogbo, Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, contended that the APC chairman was suffering from swollen ego with an agenda to destabilise the South-West zone and create a crisis for President Bola Tinubu at home.

The statement reads: “Ganduje is clearly unhappy with the peace and united front behind the President from the South West zone and has now launched vicious attacks to ignite regional political battles to weaken the President ahead of 2027.”

According to Rasheed, the anti-democratic utterances of the APC leader contrast sharply with the democratic credentials of Tinubu, wondering why the APC leader speaks like an amateur dictator without respect for history.

He added, “Local permutations, grievances and interests dictate how people vote rather than superimposed force. The failure of the APC leader to win Kano State governorship race for his party is an example. In Kano, the local peculiarities enforced the subsisting victory of the Kwankwasiyya group, which beat the Ganduje caucus, which was in office for eight years.

“If Ganduje failed in his state because internal forces rejected his brand of politics, why is he thinking Osun factors, which enthroned Adeleke, would not resist any attempt to disrespect the will of Osun people in 2026?”