The reinstated Labour Celebration governorship candidate in Ondo Environment, Ayodele Olorunfemi, has bemoaned his failure to win Saturday’s election, blaming former Anambra Environment governor, Peter Obi, and the Nigeria Labour Congress for his dilemma.
Governor Fortunate Aiyedatiwa of the ruling All Progressives Congress was once declared the winner through the Distant Nationwide Electoral Fee upcoming sweeping the 18 native govt farmlands in Ondo.
Within the ultimate declaration of the end result through the Environment Returning Officer, Prof Olayemi Akinwumi, he stated APC’s Ayedatiwa polled a complete of 366,781 votes to defeat Agboola Ajayi of the PDP, who were given 117,845 votes.
The Returning Officer stated, “That Ayedatiwa Lucky Orimisan of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby returned elected.”
Olorunfemi’s loss comes a couple of days upcoming INEC returned his title at the poll as LP flag bearer for the November 16 ballot, following a ruling through the Courtroom of Enchantment.
Following weeks of abeyance, Olorunfemi heaved a sigh of pleasure when the Courtroom of Enchantment in Abuja vacated an previous judgment through the Federal Top Courtroom ordering the electoral umpire to recognise Obi’s anointed candidate, Olusola Ebiseni.
Reacting in an interview with The PUNCH, Olorunfemi vowed to not forgive the previous LP presidential candidate and the NLC for the function they performed in scuttling his Ondo governorship marketing campaign.
When requested if he succeeded in having a last-minute door-to-door marketing campaign together with his supporters upcoming profitable his attraction, a saddened LP flag bearer confessed that his marketing campaign for the election was once neither right here nor there.
He stated, “I’ve Peter Obi and the NLC to thank for that. They’ve scuttled my aspirations and probabilities to win this Ondo election. Those folk spoilt issues for us with that PDP discard they sought after to pressure at the birthday party. Their insistence on having Ebiseni at the poll ruined the entirety for me.
“They just capitalised on the crisis between the Labour Party and the Nigeria Labour Congress to create problems. Can you imagine that Ebiseni wrote a letter to the court in my name without my knowledge, saying I have withdrawn from the race? They cannot exclude me from such a position.”
Generation accepting that he knew his probabilities on the ballot have been thin upcoming his reinstatement a couple of days to the ballot, Olorunfemi vowed to get his pound of flesh.
The LP deputy chairman for South additionally threatened to petition police government to research how his title and signature have been cast through Ebiseni and the NLC.
“Thank God we were given an attraction judgment and my title is again within the INEC portal. The great factor here’s that the reality has prevailed. Withdrawal should be voluntary. You can not pressure anyone to remove. What they have got carried out was once an struggle to pressure me in the back of my again.
“Once more, it wasn’t the birthday party that submitted it. It was once the handiwork of the previous President of the NLC and head of the Nationwide Transition Committee, Abduwaheed Omar. What they did is legal.
“In fact, I am planning to petition the Inspector General of Police to probe how they wrote that letter, put my signature and presented it before the court. We will deal with that later. For now, we are still doing our underground work and doing our best for this election,” he said.
When referred to as to shield the allegation levelled towards the employees’ union, performing Chairman of the NLC Political Fee, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, described Olorunfemi as a ‘very funny character.’
“He’s one human being you must by no means hurry severely. On account of this catastrophe between us and Abure, Olorunfemi become the deputy to Abure and he was once given the price tag. Prior to this election, he was once a placeholder. So what did he do? He now began searching for who would purchase the price tag from him.
“Within the procedure, they requested Ebiseni to pay N20m to get the price tag. He paid or even added every other N5m which they claimed was once for bills. Once they refused to provide him the price tag, Ebiseni going to court docket. In retaliation, the Abure’s camp got to work to safeguard INEC didn’t add his title as a result of the Kagaroo judgment they going to keep.
“The only challenge we have was that before the judgment, INEC had already given the code for uploading the names of agents to Olorunfemi. We know he would have uploaded the names of suspected APC agents there. We know he is obviously working indirectly for the APC.”
As of the presen of submitting this tale, efforts to succeed in each Obi and Ebiseni for reactions have been unsuccessful.