BREAKING: Sensitive election materials arrives Ondo for governorship poll

Sensitive election materials for the Ondo state governorship election arrived the state capital city, Akure today.

This was revealed in a brief statement that was published on Monday on the official X page of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The message read: “Breaking News! Sensitive materials for the Ondo State governorship election, scheduled for Saturday, 16th November 2024, have arrived in Akure, the state capital, and received by officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The materials were conveyed to Akure by the Nigerian Air Force”, it added.

Officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) received the items, which were flown by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

This is a big step in making sure the state’s election process runs smoothly and safely.

Earlier…

In response to the assertion made by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that the strategy used to win Edo State’s 2024 gubernatorial election will be used to win Ondo State’s election on November 16, the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State, South-West Nigeria, responded.

APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje made the statement at the party’s situation room for the Edo election in Abuja.

Mr. Ganduje congratulated Monday Okpebholo, the APC candidate for Edo governor, on his victory.

He stated that his party would keep expanding its influence in the South-east and South-west.

In a fiercely contested campaign that raised questions over the ballot’s legitimacy, the APC candidate defeated Asue Ighodalo of the PDP.

PDP responded

In response to Mr. Ganduje’s remarks, the PDP called the results of the September 21 Edo election humiliating and embarrassing.

“Ondo State is not one of the states where the people can be intimidated or cowed”, Kennedy Peretei, the state’s PDP Publicity Secretary, said in a statement.

Mr Peretei wrote: “Our people are very enlightened and resilient.

“When the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) attempted to subvert the will of the people, the people proved to the Shagari government that they were different.

“That tradition has not died.

“Besides, the present democratic dispensation in which he is a beneficiary was watered with the blood of many Nigerians.

“It is advisable Ganduje does not go down into oblivion as one of its Undertakers”, he stated.

He added that Mr. Ganduje’s remarks came at a time when neither the Nigerian Police nor the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had yet to exonerate themselves of partisanship or collusion in the held election.

“When major players like Ganduje openly allude to the fact that their votes will not count as long as men like him hold influential positions”, he said.

His party feels that the majority of Nigerians, both at home and abroad, are starting to lose faith in our hard-won democracy according to report.

“Ganduje’s vituperations were the surest confirmation that the election (Edo poll) was rigged.

“Instead of being sober for subverting the will of the people, Ganduje robbed salt on injury by saying that his party intends to control all the five South Eastern states”, Mr Peretei stated.

According to him, the party applauds Edo State’s citizens’ bravery for their outstanding election performance, “despite INEC’s flagrant disobedience of their own rules”.

The spokesperson said: “Everyone knows that most of the results announced at the state collation centre were fabricated, as the figures were different from those uploaded into the INEC Irev portal.

“The people of Edo State could never have elected a man who promised to bring ‘insecurity to Edo State’.

“Let Ganduje first give the ‘Edo Treatment’ to his people in Kano State, where he was humiliated by a relatively unknown New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in last year’s gubernatorial election”.

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