Newscenter Media News The Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) has postponed the council elections scheduled for this year indefinitely. Chairman of ODIEC, Dr Joseph Aremo, disclosed this, yesterday, during a meeting with stakeholders at the commission’s headquarters in Akure, the state capital.
According to Aremo, the postponement became imperative due to non-compliance of political parties with the Electoral Act. ODIEC had fixed February 2024 for the poll following the expiration of the tenure of the council chairmen in August 2023 before the passing of the former governor, the late Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
Thee ODIEC Chairman, who disclosed that no political party had submitted any candidate’s name, said that the commission would review its activities and a new date would soon be communicated.
He described the action of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in the state as sabotage, following the efforts and commitment of the commission to conduct the election.
On his part, Chairman of IPAC in the state, Olaoluwa Adesanya, said that registered political parties deliberately boycotted the electoral process.
Adesanya said that the governor, Luck Aiyedatiwa, had refused to meet with IPAC despite several letters written to him. He maintained that political parties would not participate in the conduct of the election until after meeting with the governor to ascertain the level of readiness of the state government for the conduct of the poll.
In another development, with about four months to the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State, crisis is currently rocking the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), following the disagreement of the party with its gubernatorial candidate, Agboola Ajayi, over the constitution of the campaign council in the state.
The party, yesterday, frowned on the announcement of some leaders as members of the campaign council by Ajayi without recourse to the party.
Spokesperson to the party’s standard-bearer, Samuel Ogunmusi, disclosed that the former National Vice Chairman (South West) of the party, Eddy Olafeso, will serve as the Chairman of Ajayi’s campaign council, while the former chairman in the state, Clement Faboyede, was appointed as the campaign’s Director-General; John Ola-Mafo, Director-General (Special Duties), and Deji Aseniserare was appointed as Secretary of the Campaign Council.
But infuriated by the development, Publicity Secretary of the party, Kennedy Peretei, decried the development as embarrassing. According to Peretei, in a statement made available to The Guardian, the announcement of the purported campaign council negates the constitution of the party.
Meanwhile, the party also revealed that since the demise of its erstwhile Chairman, the late Fatai Adams, a substantive chairman was yet to emerged.
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