A
former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu has
emerged as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the November 26,
2016 governorship election.
Akeredolu
who was the candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria in the 2012
governorship election, scored 669 votes in a governorship primary held at the
International Event Centre, Akure, the Ondo State capital on Saturday.
He
defeated the anointed candidate of a national leader of the party, Dr. Segun
Abraham who polled 635 while Chief Olusola Oke came third, scoring 583. Senator
Ajayi Boroffice came forth with 471 votes.
Twenty-four
aspirants initially contested the poll but Dr. Paul Akintelure was later
announced to have officially stepped down.
According
to the Electoral Committee Chairman, and Jigawa State Governor, Muhammed
Abubakar, a total of 2,744 voters were accredited.
The
exercise was conducted under tight security as thousands of security agents
from the Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Security and Civil
Defence Corps as well as men of the Directorate of Security Services were
deployed in Akure to maintain law and order.
The
exercise took off at about 8am with accreditation of delegates at three
different centres in Akure while the voting started at about 12pm at the
International Event Centre, Akure, ended at 6.30pm.
The
delegates from the three senatorial districts of the state, were accredited at
the three designated centres.
During
the accreditation, some delegates were sent out of the centres on the grounds
that they were not financial members of the party. They were ushered out of the
accreditation centres by the security agents.
The
officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission led by the
Administrative Secretary in Ondo State, Mr. Kabir Omosanya, were also at the
venue to monitor the exercise.
Before
the voting started, it was gathered that some of the aspirants were paid as
much as N150,000, N100,000, N50,000 to each of their delegate in order to
buy their votes.
However,
the embattled chairman of the party, Mr. Isaac Kekemeke was absent at the
exercise. His absence according to a source, was not unconnected with his
purported impeachment by the two-thirds majority of the State Executive
Committee of the state following an alleged anti-party activities.
Source:The Punch
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Politics