The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, presented certificates of return to Ondo State Governor-elect, Lucky Aiyedatiwa and his deputy, Olayide Adelami.
The Supervisory National Commissioner for Ondo State, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, handed over the certificates to the duo at a short ceremony held at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
However, a Federal High Court sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, yesterday, reserved judgment in a suit filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Agboola Ajayi, seeking the disqualification of Adelami as the running mate to Aiyedatiwa.
The presiding judge, Justice Adegoke, adjourned the judgment to a date that would be communicated to the parties after the lawyers to the plaintiffs and the defendant adopted their processes and argued their case for and against the suit.
Ajayi had, through his lawyer, M. Ndoka (SAN), challenged the eligibility of Adelami to contest as the deputy governorship candidate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He consequently sought the disqualification of APC from the ballot.
In his originating summons, Ajayi said that the first defendant, Adelami, is known by multiple conflicting and irreconcilable names of Adelami Owolabi Jackson and Olaide Owolabi Adelami.
He asked the court to disqualify him as the governorship candidate.
However, counsel to Adelami, Dr Remi Olatubora, said that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) result has the name Adelami Owolabi Jackson in 1974 and that a degree certificate from Ambrose Alli University issued in 1982 has the name Adelami Olaide Owolabi.
He said the grievance of the plaintiff is not about discrepancies in the name but the order of arrangement of the names.
Olatubora said the plaintiff has no right to file the suit under Section 29 (5) of the Electoral Act 2022 because he is not a member of the APC and did not participate in the primaries that produced Adelami and Aiyedatiwa as candidates.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, has said that the landslide victory recorded by Aiyedatiwa was not influenced by the Presidency or any other external influence in the country.
Ganduje, who spoke while receiving Aiyedatiwa at the national secretariat of the party, yesterday, in Abuja, said that the entire strata of Ondo people voted en-masse for him across the 18 local councils of the state.
He said that the landslide victory recorded by the APC in 202 out of 203 wards in the state spoke volumes of the level of acceptability of the party in the state.
Ganduje said Aiyedatiwa’s victory would not have been made possible but for the eventual unity of purpose and harmonious relationship among party chieftains in the state.
The APC national chairman, while expressing optimism that the party would sustain its winning streak after the end of Aiyedatiwa’s tenure in office, charged him to consolidate on the achievements of his predecessor, the late Rotimi Akeredolu.
He said it behoves Aiyedatiwa to ensure the even spread of developmental projects and avoid falling into the trap of abandonment of projects in the state.
