Ondo Guber: Ex-Ondo AG, Jegede Emerges PDP Candidate

By James Sowole

The immediate past Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice for Ondo State, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, was on Monday elected as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the November 26 gubernatorial election in the state.

He scored 760 votes to defeat his only opponent, Hon. Saka Lawal, who scored 22 votes.

The primary election held amidst tight security at the Ondo State international event centre, The Dome, Akure, supervised by a team from the PDP National Secretariat led by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Seriake Dickson.

The primary was perceived by some people as the first round of the exercise by the party ahead of the gubernatorial election as the Alli Modu Sheriff faction of the party has scheduled its own primary exercise for next week.

Though 840 delegates made up of 609 elected ad-hoc delegates of three from each of the 203 wards, 29 State Executive Council and other automatic delegates from the 18 local government areas of the state were expected to vote, 782 votes were cast.

The primary election was supervised by a team of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by the Administrative Secretary, Kabir Omosanya.

All officials and stakeholders described the exercise as free, fair and credible and in line with the Electoral Act.

In an interview, the INEC Administrative Secretary said the exercise conformed to the laid down rules of the exercise.

He said the commission did not receive any injunction barring it from supervising the primary.

He said there was no directive yet from the INEC headquarters for them to monitor another gubernatorial primary for the party in the state.