Ondo South Senator, Jimoh Ibrahim, expressed his dismay at the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Ondo 2024 governorship primary election held on April 20th, 2024, labeling the exercise a “mega fraud” destined to be resolved at the Supreme Court.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Ibrahim asserted that the primary election failed to take place in 159 out of 203 polling units across the three senatorial districts in Ondo State.
He contended that Kogi State Governor, Ododo Ahmed Usman, who chaired the Ondo State Primary Election Committee, deceitfully declared Lucky Aiyedatiwa the winner in collaboration with former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege.
Citing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) report, Ibrahim disclosed that he had filed a complaint at a Federal High Court in accordance with provisions of the Electoral Act, which require complaints arising from primary elections to be filed within 14 days.
Per the INEC report, which Ibrahim personally provided to journalists, it was observed that the primary election did not take place in 15 out of 18 LGAs in Ondo.
Ibrahim further alleged that Ododo and Omo-Agege altered the collation date midway through the process to facilitate “electoral fraud” in favor of incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
To support his claims, Ibrahim referenced a letter purportedly written by Ododo to the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akure, changing the collation date on the day of the primary election.
Portions of the letter seen by DAILY POST stated: “Please refer to our letters on the above-stated subject matter, dated 5th April 2024 with Ref. Number APC/NHDQ/INEC/19024/016 wherein we requested for a change in the State Collation Centre.
“We are writing to further inform the Commission of the postponement of the collation of election results for the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election, which is scheduled for 20th April 2024. The postponement became necessary due to unforeseen circumstances regarding the submission of results from the Local Government Collation Centre Officers.
“Despite our best efforts to ensure timely collation, most of our Local Government collation officers will arrive late, as a result of logistic challenges which have led to a delay in the collation processes.”
