Date Published: 09/20/09

Political Black Eye for falae as Labour Party Candidate wins Bye-Elections in Ondo State

For  former leading Nigerian Presidential Contender, Chief Olu Falae, it was a time to check the reality of weight and reckoning at the weekend at the bye-elections held in Akure North Local Government to fill the hitherto unoccupied House of Assembly seat in Ondo State.
Chief Olu Falae’s Democratic People’s Alliance, DPA, scored a disastrous 5 votes against the 15,586 votes polled by Labour Party’s candidate, Mr. Akin Adeniyi, to clinch the ticket, thereby signaling the dwindling political relevance of Falae and Chief Tayo Alasoadura, who is gunning for the Ondo State governorship ticket come next 2013.  The Action Congress, AC, the party of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu came a distance third with a little over 400 votes.

The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Akin Idowu came second with a little over one thousand votes. Akure North Local Government lost its slot in the Ondo State House of Assembly when the then elected representative, Alasoadura, the younger brother of Chief Tayo Alasoadura, former Ondo State Commissioner for Finance took ill and died.  The Late Alasoadura’s election was widely condemned as fraudulent and manipulated by his benefactor, Tayo Alasoadura.

Pointblanknews.com gathered that there were pocket of disturbances during the election.  Supporters of Chief Alasoadura in Iju town allegedly tried to tinker with the ballot boxes but were resisted.  In Igoba, an operative of Labour Party, one Mr. Ade Basket purportedly attempted snatching and stuffing ballot boxes.  And in Oba-Ile, the property of the Chairman of PDP in the Local Government, Chief Fasemoore who incidentally was made a chief at the town’s Anglican Church, by the Bishop of Akure Diocese, Rt. Rev. Itinmoye, was on the same Saturday, vandalized and had to run for dear life.  Fasemoore said he did know why he had to be attacked as there was no controversy about the election.

With the announcement of Akin Adeniyi as the duly elected lawmaker for the local government, he would now join his colleagues of the Labour Party to ensure a majority stake for the states ruling party.