Kunle Adelabu
The Chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ikorodu Local Government elections held last Saturday, Mr Hassan Babatunde, has rejected the results of the elections.
But it remains to be seen if the aggrieved PDP candidate, who voted in Ward A, polling booth 003 (Rademo Street), will be challenging the results of the election which was won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Hon. Wasiu Adeshina, as he stated that the deeds has already been done and that his party wants peace to prevail in lkorodu.
In the Chairmanship election results in lkorodu Local government, the ruling party (APC) polled 4,729 votes while PDP got 1,497 votes.
Hassan spoke with THE IMPACT at the Ikorodu Local Government Secretariat hall, venue of the collation of the results, after the Chairmanship election results were announced by the Returning Officer of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) in Ikorodu LG, Mr Olumide Metilelu.
“The result is not acceptable by the PDP and we did not even sign the result but it has happened. What we want is peace for the people of Ikorodu”, the PDP candidate said.
He said that the electoral officials arrived late at his polling unit in Ward A, a situation he said was different from what was obtainable in most of the areas where our reporters covered.
While commending the election for being peaceful, the PDP candidate blamed the failure of the political class for the low turnout of voters.
“The electoral officials arrived late in my unit. It was not until around 11.00am before we saw them and we supposed to have started the election by 8.00am”, he said.
“Though, the election went peacefully without any rancor. We have understanding in our Ward, but the most surprising thing is that most of the LASIEC officials were Local Government staff.
“I also commended the security officials. They really tried. They measured up to expectations in the area of security.
“I expected to win the election but the turnout was too low. It was not encouraging at all.
“I can say categorically that it is because we, the politicians, I will not exclude myself, have failed the masses, that was why there was low turnout at the various polling booths. People are angry and are not willing to come out to cast their votes because of what is happening in the country,”, he said.
He charged LASIEC to improve in the area of staffing, while also commending the electoral umpire for organizing free and fair elections.
“LASIEC should improve in the area of staffing, though I don’t know the modalities for recruiting their staff and training them. You can see that some of them colluded with the APC people and I don’t why. I don’t know the orientation that they gave them”, he alleged.
“But we refrained from putting up any unnecessary argument or causing any dispute.
“We thank God that the election came up and that means we can still improve on the areas that we are complaining about.
“The election was free and fair to some extent. In some areas, the turnout was very low but at the end of the day when you hear the result, you will be wondering where the figures came from.
“We were seeing 20 or 30 people coming out for this election instead of a massive turnout.
“At the end, when you see the results, you will be amazed, shocked and surprised. Where we had 40 people coming to vote, at the end of the day, we heard that APC polled 120 votes and PDP had 2 votes. It was surprising”, he further alleged.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Taiwo Longe, the Chairman of APC in Ikorodu LGA, has described the just concluded council election as commendable and a vote of confidence for his party.
“Well commendable results. Normally, people always vote for the progressive party. They may not know the candidates but they are aware of the party”, he said after the announcement of the APC candidates as winners in the elections.
