A former deputy governor of Ondo State, Mr Agboola Ajayi, on Thursday, emerged as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state ahead of the November 16 governorship election in the state.
Ajayi, a former deputy governor to the late governor Rotimi Akeredolu, beat six other aspirants to the PDP governorship ticket at the primary held in Akure.
Ajayi parted ways with the late Akeredolu in 2020 when he defected from the All Progressives Congress to the PDP and later the Zenith Labour Party in pursuit of his governorship ambition.
He contested on the ZLP platform against Akeredolu in 2020 and lost to Akeredolu.
Having now clinched the PDP ticket for this year, Ajayi will be facing Akeredolu’s immediate-past deputy governor and now governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, at the poll on November 16.
Aiyedatiwa won the APC primary conducted last Saturday.
In the PDP governorship primary conducted on Thursday, Ajayi polled 264 out of the 621 delegates to win the PDP ticket.
Those who contested against him were Chief Olusola Ebiseni, Mr Kolade Akinjo, Mr John Mafo, Mr Adeolu Akinwumi, Mr Bamidele Akingboye and Bosun Arebuwa.
The Chairman of the PDP Primary Election Committee and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, declared Aiyedatiwa the winner at the end of the poll.
Akinjo, a former member of the House of Representatives, scored 157 votes to come second.
As announced by the poll chairman, Ebiseni polled 99 votes; Akinwumi got 64 votes; Akingboye scored 24 votes; Mafo polled nine votes; while and Arebuwa had two votes.
Ajayi described his victory in the primary as the triumph of democracy, commending the election committee for the transparency displayed in the primary.
He said, “No victor, no vanquished, the victory is for all of us. I want to appeal to my co-contestants to join hands and work with me to have victory in the November 16 governorship election. I will still go and meet them.
“I also want to thank members of the election committee, the election was very transparent; they have done well. We will work together to win the main election.”
Prior to the commencement of the exercise, Ewhrudjakpo had vowed to conduct a free, fair and credible.
He said the arrangement of the primary indicated the readiness of the party to take over Ondo State from the ruling APC.
He said, “We are in Ondo State for the conduct of the PDP governorship primaries, where we have seven aspirants and you know electoral rules require that for a candidate to emerge in any party, primaries should be conducted.
“Three forms are provided for in the Electoral Acts 2022; we have the direct, indirect and consensus primaries. But here today, we are adopting the indirect primaries for which we are here. We expect about 627 delegates for the election and we are all set, all members of the panel are here, the accreditation has started. So, we are prepared and the aspirants are in high spirits and they have assured me that they would agree to work together for whoever emerges as the candidate.
“The problem of our party is how to get the power back from the APC that has taken power from us for the past eight years. We expect a very transparent, free, fair, credible and rancour-free election and I have got the commitment of all the aspirants that they would abide by the outcome and we are going to make it transparent as possible.”
Source | Punchng
