I’ll defeat Ajimobi, others, says Akala..............•Ladoja denies stepping down

GOVERNOR Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State has described the victory of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the National Assembly elections as pyrrhic. Alao-Akala, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, said he would defeat the ACN candidate, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, and others on April 26. He also said he would invite them to witness his swearing-in on May 29 “because ACN is just out to deceive the people”. The governor re-assured his teeming supporters of total victory in the governorship election, irrespective of the loss of some of the senatorial and House of Representatives seats last Saturday. According a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Prince Dotun Oyelade, the governor assured all his supporters not to be jittery at all. “PDP was the only party in Oyo State that had minimum of 25% votes cast in all the 33 Local Government Areas in the state during the National Assembly election last Saturday. “PDP had over 22,000 superior votes over and above the other political parties during the election and if that election was for the governorship, Governor Alao Akala would have satisfied INEC condition and declared the winner”. Alao-Akala nevertheless expressed optimism in the governorship election, saying that more voters were expected to troop out for their choice candidate. Making an analysis of the results, the governor’s aide said: “The PDP had 60,000 votes more than the opposition in Oyo North Senatorial District alone”, while appealing to INEC “to quickly correct itself by accommodating votes from Ogbomoso South and Oriire Local Governments”. In Ogbomoso South for instance, the statement said: “The entire 13,000 votes were not included in the final tabulation while 1,600 votes were inadvertently recorded for Oriire, instead of 16,000 votes”. Against the allegation that some people in the state were planning to step up opposition campaign of calumny against Akala, the statement said that “the governor’s achievement will easily neutralise such machination”. Reacting to the statement, the governorship candidate of the Accord Party (AP), Senator Rashidi Ladoja, said Alao-Akala was just playing to the gallery. His words: “Akala should tell us where is he strong. Is it in Ogbomoso where he has got not too significant influence? Is it possible to bribe people with N15,000 to vote as he has been doing? Those are the things he can get, not victory as he dreams. The last election was a clean one. There are two major factors that determine election: the party and the candidate. Everybody knows me that I am a person that comes out on people’s demand. That is why we did not lose any seat in Ibadan. Not even a local government. “When you look at it, there is more to the election than meets the eye. Akala should not deceive himself. In Accord, we felt we have done very well. We won in all local governments, except in the Ibadan North West / South West where the House of Representatives election did not take place. Many people felt other elections would not take place in that constituency, reason they did not come out to vote. Ibadan has the largest number of voters totaling 242,000, and the winner had 30,000. That does not reflect real winning. I will win and there is no doubt about that. Akala is only playing to the gallery with his self-assuring statement,” Ladoja, the immediate past governor of the state and former boss to Alao-Akala, said. Speaking on behalf of the ACN and Ajimobi, the party’s Secretary, Hon. Wasiu Olatubosun, said: “As far as I am concerned, Akala is dreaming. Even in Saturday’s election, ACN polled 115,925 in Oyo Central, PDP had 78,243, while Accord polled 92,544. In Oyo South, ACN had 127,691, PDP had 92,359, while Accord had 118,266. “In Oyo North, which is still contentious, ACN polled 96,795, PDP had 141,500, while Accord got 24,865. Adding all these together, ACN got the highest votes totaling 330,461 with PDP garnering 312,502, and Accord getting the least votes of 235,662. Between the ACN and PDP, there is a clear gap of 18,000. So, how is he going to make up to win the governorship election?” Meanwhile, Ladoja yesterday described as false the report that he had stepped down for Ajimobi. Ladoja said he was still the Accord candidate and has not stepped down for the ACN candidate nor has he endorsed any candidate, contrary to the continuous rumour being peddled by the ACN to various media offices. Ladoja’s media aide, Alhaji Lanre Latinwo, said this in a statement last night in Ibadan, the state capital. Latinwo also said the story relayed last Thursday on a radio station in Ibadan that Accord had asked people to vote for any presidential candidate “is false”. By Sola Adeyemo & Ademola Babalola, Ibadan Courtesy Of: Nigerian Compass