23rd April, 2024
By Emmanuel Mogbede
Despite the controversies that trailed the exercise, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, has lauded Governor Ahmed Ododo over the successful conduct of the Ondo State Governorship primaries of the party.
Ododo was the chairman of the APC primary election committee for the November 2024 Ondo governorship election held between last Saturday and Sunday.
Aiyedatiwa got 48,569 votes to beat his closest rival Mayowa Akinfolarin, who polled 15,343 votes in the election, while Olusola Oke came third with 14,865 votes in the election conducted through direct primary.
However, some of the 16 aspirants who contested for the APC gubernatorial ticket have protested the outcome of the primary, with allegations that elections were not conducted in many areas across the 17 local governments of the state.
Some of the aspirants are also blaming Ododo who is governor of Kogi State for conducting a wishy-washy exercise.
However, in contrast to such complaints, Ganduje who spoke when he received the report of the State Governorship Primary Election Committee from Ododo in Abuja on Tuesday commended him for a job well done.
“You have made history because this is your first national assignment outside Kogi, we thank you and your members for giving the assignment your best.
“On our part, we followed the Constitution to ensure that no loophole was observed during the exercise, I followed you and your team closely from our observation room.
“And you followed the procedure from the collation, this report is very important to us, we will study it and there after, a Certificate of Return will be issued to the winner of the primary,” he said.
The National Chairman called on the other aspirants and the party’s stakeholders to join forces with the winner of the primary election, Gov. Lucky Ayedatiwa, to ensure total victory at the Nov. 16 governorship election.
Earlier, Ododo thanked members of the party in the state for their cooperation and support, expressing optimism that the APC would record landslide victory in the election.
He also called on other aspirants to and join forces with Ayedatiwa, to ensure the party’s victory in the election.
“I hereby submit the results confirmed from 18 Local Government Areas of the state, which covered the whole activities that happened during the primaries, the aspirants and their votes.
“I thank the party’s leadership for giving the committee the opportunity to serve, I am ready to perform in any other national assignments in future,” he said.
(NAN)