Lagos AD alleges guber polls irregularities, rejects result, heads to court

Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos has rejected the result of last Saturday’s election declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in which All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, emerged as winner.

But the AD’s governorship candidate, Chief Owolabi Salis, alleged that the exercise was marred by irregularities, intimidation, double voting and collation fraud.

Speaking with newsmen in Lagos , he said: “I am not accepting the result of the governorship election. It is complete fraud. This is not an election and I totally reject it. A lot of miscounting was done against AD. They tried to relegate us by putting us in the sixth position. I do not believe Sanwo-Olu won in a clear contest.”

Sanwo-Olu was declared winner of the election by the Returning Officer in the state, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, with a total of 739,445 votes to defeat his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jimi Agbaje, who polled 206,141 votes. Salis was said to have garnered 3370 votes.

Salis stated that the party had been campaign at the grassroots and empowering people to advance the interest of the less privileged, saying: “ They thought AD party was no more but they saw us coming out boldly to campaign vigorously and that intimidated them. “

Salis also reiterated that every Lagosian’s vote must count. He alleged that people were intimidated which caused low turn out of voters

He added: “I am going to court. I have overwhelming evidence and will get lawyers that handle election matters to look into these irregularities committed against my party in the just concluded election.

“ The party will follow the matter to the logical conclusion and I believe we will get justice. It is very easy to win the case when you have enough evidence.”