•AEROLAND, LAGOS PDP, LAGOS West Senatorial Candidate
Deacon Segun Adewale is an angry man right now. He is so furious at the outcome of the recent Lagos West Senatorial elections.
Everyone in Lagos calls him Aeroland. That is the name of his company. He is a seasoned politician who has been around for decades contesting various posts for public office. He is also a successful businessman.
He recently ran for the Lagos West senatorial district seat held on Saturday 25th February, but the APC candidate Idiat Adebule was declared winner by INEC. He lost, according to the INEC returning officer. But Aeroland insists that he didn’t lose. He is telling everyone who cares to listen that he won and that he is the rightful winner of that keenly contested seat.
A few days ago he told City People Magazine that he won by landslide. “I came 2nd, after Peter Obi in the last election.”
“INEC with APC reduced my votes at Alimosho, Ojo, Oshodi, Araromi, Ikeja, and Amuwo Odofin”.
“There was over-voting in Badagry, Mushin and Agege. Our results show we won. But INEC’s pre-written results say otherwise. We don’t want-are-rerun. We want the authentic results on Form EC8A he declared. “They rigged the election that was held at UNILAG. What they did was that anywhere I score like 60,000 to 70,000 votes they will reduce it. They will not count some ballot papers. That is what happened.
“So, those areas of my strength, where we have so many Igbo people, they reduced my votes. They suppressed it. At the other areas where we both competed for votes, there was over-voting.
The total number of people (accreditations) is less than the number of people that voted. It is almost twice”. For instance, there was no where results were being collated and we reconciled results. They just bring results and tell you to sign. And if you don’t sign, they will just leave.”
“That happened at the Ward, Local Government and Senatorial levels. How can INEC be rigging on behalf of APC?
“So you can see how they stole my elections and gang up with APC to rig the results”. “The result was announced in a room, far away from the collating hall, where media, agents, etc were waiting.”
According to the Returning Officer “Adebule Idiat Oluranti of APC having satisfied requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner”.
So, the Lagos State senatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Segun Adewale is calling on INEC to release the result of Saturday 25th February senatorial elections. Adewale made the call while speaking with newsmen in Lagos, yesterday. He said the Electorial Officer and Alimosho Collation Centre has released all of the results in Alimosho except the senatorial seat.
Segun Adewale (the PDP Lagos West senatorial candidate) said “they can’t take this election, I have won from me. I have won the election. There is no way anybody can take it away from me. It is not me, but it is the people that gave me the mandate. And I can’t let the mandate go. It is a shame. I am representing the people. People voted massively and they can’t take away from me”.
An INEC Officer at Beat 008 also said “these people came and the result collation took place here and there result was not given. We asked where is the paper that the INEC is supposed to have and they said they don’t have”. So, we had to put up our own result. When we got to the Collation Centre, we told them. This is the result that happened in beat 008. We were told that they will not put anything there, because their own official did not give them the result”.
Akindele Ojo, the PDP South-West Administrative Secretary also said “I feel this should not continue. We have another major election in about two weeks time and this one should be corrected.”
“The Chairman of INEC in the zone and the national headquarters should look into all these complaints and do something. Because, for this election to be credible, we are not in 1998. We are in 2023. These must be resolved, and the process must be credible.”
Finally, Lukman Akidele, the Alimosho Local Government Returning Officer said “our representative at the polling unit were not allowed to come in to compare the result given to them at the polling unit with the one they are compiling, to the final list. That is the bone of contention, that is never done. So, after the whole process were completed, they are allowed to come and sign the paper they have not compared the result given to them at the polling unit. So, what we are arguing for is that, they have done it and have compiled their own and we have our result, so let us see what you have entered the final list and compare it with the result you gave to us at the polling unit that’s what we are asking for.”
Send Us News, Gist, more... to citypeopleng@gmail.com | Twitter: @CitypeopleMagz
