‘We must hold polls on November 26,’ INEC says

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it will not shift the Ondo governorship elections slated to hold on Saturday, November 26.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Eyitayo Jegede had urged the commission to postpone the election for 30 days to enable the party to get its house in order following a candidacy crisis.

The request was however denied by Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Segun Agbaje.

“We are going to conduct the election on Saturday; there is no going back. It is not the fault of the INEC that parties are having intra-party crises. It will cost Nigeria a lot of money if the election is postponed,” Agbaje said.

“We have prepared well for the election; the sensitive materials are already out and to postpone the election, it will cost the nation a lot of money,” he added.

The PDP was split into two due to a leadership crisis that saw the party forwarding two names to INEC for the Ondo polls; Jegede for the Ahmed Makarfi faction and Jimoh Ibrahim for the Ali Modu Sheriff faction.

Jegede was initially chosen as the official candidate but his name was removed following an order from the Federal High Court and replaced with Ibrahim’s.

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The decision was however reversed when the Appeal Court ruled, on November 23, that Jegede is the rightful candidate of the PDP.