PDP kicks as APC sweeps Ogun LG poll

Samuel Awoyinfa, Abeokuta

The ruling All Progressives Congress in Ogun State won all the 57 chairmanship seats in the 2016 local government and local council development areas election held on Saturday in the state.

The election was conducted by the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission to elect chairmen and councillors into the state 20 LGs and 37 newly created LCDAs.

The APC won 346 out of the 349 councillorship seats while the Unity Party of Nigeria won two councillorship seats in Oke Odan ward in the Ifesowapo LCDA and Omu ward in the Leguru LCDA.

The Peoples Democratic Party won one councillorship seat in Ona Otun-Igbogila ward in the Yewa South Local Government.

These results were announced on Sunday by the Chairperson of OGSIEC, Alhaja Risikat Ogunfemi, at the commission’s headquarters in Abeokuta.

However, few hours before the commission completed the announcement of the results, the PDP in the South West Zone, condemned the outcome of the election, alleging that it was fraught with irregularities and violence, which were allegedly masterminded by the APC.

Addressing journalists on Sunday at Park Inn, Kuto, Abeokuta, the South-West Zonal Secretary of the PDP, Revd. Bunmi Jenyo, said the council election should be cancelled.

Jenyo, who was flanked by the state Chairman of the party, Sikirulai Ogundele, and other officials, further alleged that election materials were not supplied to some local governments like Ijebu Waterside.

He said, “During voting process, ballot boxes and ballot papers were criminally hijacked by miscreants armed to the teeth, who were identified members of the APC in some local government areas, particularly in Abeokuta.

“There were sporadic shootings in some local councils. While some PDP members, who resisted the hoodlums, sustained varying degrees of injuries, two people had gunshot wounds.”

The state chapter of the Inter-party Advisory Council, a body of state chairmen of different political parties, however, faulted the PDP’s claim, arguing that the election was “free, fair and transparent.”

At a news conference in Abeokuta on Sunday, where 11 state chairmen of different political parties in the state were present, the body, who spoke through its chairman, Moshood Adesina, said, “The outcome of the election, as announced by OGSIEC, is a true and fair representation of the performance of the different political parties that participated in the process.”

However, the state Chairman of the UPN, Olufunmilayo Oginni, condemned the election, arguing that results released in some parts of the state were not a true representation of the voters’ choices.