The PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State, Abdul-Azeez (Jandor) Adediran, has described as shocking, his loss in the Ojo Local Government Area of the State after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the results of Saturday’s poll.
The candidate voted at Osolu Secondary School, Irewe 1 in Ojo, his hometown.
He noted that with his brand and the work he put in place, it was shocking to hear that he only polled 3,000 votes in his LGA in Ojo.
He lost the local government to Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who garnered 30,797 votes, with Labour Party’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, coming second with 19,027.
Mr Adediran, a former loyalist of the ruling APC, reacted to the outcome of the polls at a news conference on Monday at his campaign office in Ikeja, the state capital.
He described the election outcome as shocking and not a reflection of the party’s worth. He vowed to pursue the process to the end before letting out his next step of action.
“We need to let everyone know that Saturday’s election was the end of another process (in the INEC timetable for the 2023 elections), and the process continues.
“We will know what action to take when we see the last of this process. We have not seen the last of it. Yes, a supposed winner has been declared, but the election is a process, not an event,” he said.
Highlighting some flaws in the process, Mr Adediran said the election became like a war, alleging that most PDP agents and other political parties were chased away from collation centres.
“There was voters’ suppression everywhere, intimidation, harassment, violence; some people were killed while several others were harmed in the process of trying to express or exercise their franchise.”
Mr Adediran said his team had ensured the police were informed of threats ahead of the polls.
The candidate explained that he ran the poll by himself and his team, saying, “not a single money from the party at the state or national level, after the February 25 presidential and National Assembly Elections.”
Mr Adediran said that if elections had been free and fair, he would have been the first to congratulate the winner.
He urged the “depressed and demoralised” party loyalists and followers to remain resolute, keep their heads up and wait for the next decision.
On Monday morning, INEC declared Mr Sanwo-Olu as the election winner, having polled 762,134 to defeat 15 other contestants.
Mr Sanwo-Olu defeated his closest rival of the Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who scored 312,329 votes in the election.
The PDP candidate garnered 62,449 votes to come third in the poll.
(NAN)