By GBENGA ARIYIBI

ADO-EKITI—The candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mr Oyetunde Ojo, an in-law to the former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has been declared the winner of the  House of Representatives election re-run conducted in Ekiti Central Federal Constituency II on Saturday.

According to  the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] Returning Officer, Dr Akintunde Aremu, said Ojo recorded the highest number of votes having  polled 26,338 to defeat his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Kehinde Odebunmi who recorded 17,344 votes.

The re-run election took place in the three local governments  of Ijero, Efon and Ekiti West Local Government areas of the State.

According to Aremu results of six units out of 441 units of the Constituency were cancelled by INEC for electoral irregularities .

The INEC official  said that seven political parties; ACN; PDP; APGA; ANPP AD; NTP and Labour Party fielded candidates for the election.

Giving the breakdown of the results, he  said, the ACN candidate, Ojo polled 26,338 votes, Kehinde Odebunmi of the PDP scored 17,344 votes, AD candidate, Olaolu Fasakin  got 445 votes,  APGA, Sayo Fatayo  scored 445,  LP candidate,  Israel Ogunleye polled 69 and ANPP got 106 votes

Interestingly, the Candidate of the National Transformation Party,  NTP,  who had dragged INEC to the tribunal seeking the nullification of the ACN candidate election over non inclusion of  his name and  party logo in the April 2010,   Mr Peters Adekola Bamigbade scored 153 votes.

Out of the 120,980 registered voters, only 46,540 voters participated in the election, while rejected or void votes were 2059.

Ojo, the ACN candidate commended INEC for the job well done.

Commenting on  the outcome of the election, INEC  National Commissioner  in charge of Ekiti, Oyo and Ogun states, Prof. Lai Olorode applauded the people of the Constituency for their peaceful conduct during the election.

The state INEC Commissioner, Alhaji, Halilu Pai equally commended the security agents and politicians for upholding the tenets of Electoral Act during the conduct of the election.

But the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, rejected the results.

The Director of Communications and Strategy, Mr. Jackson Adebayo, who spoke on behalf of the party said the results were manipulated and rigged in favour of the ACN in some wards across the three local governments areas where the elections were held especially at Ijero Ekiti and some parts  believed to  be the  strongholds of PDP.

Jackson, said the election did not reflect the true position of the people who voted at the fresh election.  He noted that “This is another stolen mandate” from the people of the state by th ACN led government in Ekiti state