The National Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the October 10, 2020, governorship election in Ondo State, has rejected the appointment of Professor Eyitope Ogungbenro Ogunbodede as the Chief Returning Officer for the election.
Ogunbodede is the vice-chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Chairman of the campaign council, who is also the Governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde, who addressed newsmen in Akure on Thursday, raised the alarm, declaring that the people of Ondo State could be shortchanged if Ogunbodede was allowed to serve as the Returning Officer.
He said that the VC was a crony of the Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Rotimi Areredolu, adding that such a situation could not guarantee a free and fair election.
According to him, there appeared a high plot to sabotage the will of the voters in the state by ensuring that they did not get a free and fair election.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, quoted the governor as saying that the appointment of Ogunbodede, said to be a crony of the incumbent Ondo State Governor, who is also the standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), would compromise the election.
Besides being a crony of the Ondo State governor, Ogunbodede equally hails from Owo town, the governor added.
Makinde called on INEC to replace Prof. Ogunbodede as Chief Returning Officer with a neutral individual, adding that such a sensitive position must be held by someone who had no affiliation with any of the parties in the election.
The PDP National Campaign Council also declared that Professor A.S. Bamire, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, who conducted the training for returning officers, was not a neutral party for the purpose of the election.
The statement also indicated that the governor called on all lovers of democracy around the world to be alert to the machinations of the APC-led federal government to rig the Ondo State governorship election.
The campaign council urged the United Nations, the European Union, the United States of America and the United Kingdom and all lovers of democracy to call INEC to order, stating that it was already compiling names of all actors and would not hesitate to recommend the same for visa ban based on their actions and inactions in Saturday’s election.
