PDP’s Adebutu demands the results of the Ogun guber election be cancelled

Hon. Ladi Adebutu, the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate for governor, has rejected the state’s 2023 governorship election’s overall results and demanded that they be annulled.

Governor Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was previously proclaimed the victor of the Ogun governorship election that was held in the state on Saturday, March 23, 2023 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

After winning 12 local government areas, Abiodun was crowned the victor, while Adebutu triumphed in 8 local government areas.

Nevertheless, Adebutu, who is Abiodun’s major opponent in the governor’s race, claimed that INEC cancelled results from 54 Polling Units located in the state’s Remo North, Sagamu, and Ifo Local Government Areas during the election, calling it a “disenfranchisement of electorate” in his own strongholds.

The former federal lawmaker urged the Commission to look into the cancellations and order a rerun in the affected regions while speaking through the State Agent of the PDP for the governorship election, Mr. Oyejide Sunkanmi.

Adebutu premised the call for a re-run on the ground that such is a legitimate demand, citing the electoral Act section 24 subsection 3 which provides that “a rerun should be ordered where violence hindered the electorate, electoral officials and materials from being freely deployed for the purpose of election”.

He claims that a rerun is advised in the affected areas if the total number of invalid votes is much larger than the lead or winning margin between the winner and the first runner up.

He also mentioned Remo North Local Government, where ballots were invalidated owing to BVAS issues, and questioned why the electorate should be denied the right to vote when it was entirely their responsibility.

Returning Officer: INEC has up to 7 days to request a rerun.

Adebowale, the Returning Officer (RO) for the Ogun State governorship election, responded, saying that after looking into the records of the ROs in the affected regions, he discovered that the PDP’s complaints did not match those of the ROs.

What was mentioned conflicts with our data, but INEC has up to 7 days to order a rerun if it turns out that they are accurate.

In the state collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, the State Returning Officer, delivered the pronouncement.

Once the results from all 20 of the state’s local governments were tallied, Adebowale, who was standing alongside Niyi Ijalaye, the state’s residence electoral commissioner (REC) for INEC, pronounced Abiodun the victor of the election.

how Abiodun triumphed

Abiodun won the governorship election, according to INEC’s Returning Officer (R.O. ), Prof. Kayode Adebowale, the APC candidate. Abiodun received a total of 276, 298 votes, defeating Adebutu, who received 262, 383 votes overall out of the 645, 133 total votes cast.

Adebowale, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, announced Abiodun as the winner, saying that Abiodun “had satisfied the standards of the law, and is now declared as the winner.”