Debo Ologunagba, the Labour Party candidate, has won the bye election for the Akoko South-East/South-West Federal Constituency to the House of Representatives. The results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last night show that Mr. Ologunagba won the seat by18,000 votes as opposed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate who polled only 9,001 votes.
The Labour Party victory was made possible because as Saharareporters reported yesterday, the police in the state intercepted and arrested a federal senator, Gbenga Ogunniya, with two ballot boxes already thumb-printed for the PDP candidate. In a surprising move, the PDP has conceded defeat.
Saharareporters had broken the news about the arrest of the Senator and other members of the House of Representatives in his convoy. Apart from the arrest, Senator Ogunniya suffered abuse in the hands of vigilant voters who were planning to lynch him were it not for the intervention of the police. Ogunniya is the chair of the Senate committee on Police affairs, a position that enabled him to get 40 policemen from the Inspector General of Police to accompany him to engage in the rigging of the election.
As was expected, IG Onovo last night got the senator off the hook. Worse still, the police authorities denied that he was ever arrested and they do not plan to file any charges against the senator.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });