Jegede accepts defeat in Ondo Guber election, will not go to court

Eyitayo Jegede

The Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the November 26,2016 Ondo State Governorship election, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, has formally accepted the result of the election which was won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu.

Jegede, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), told Vanguard exclusively that he had accepted the victory of Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress in good faith and had moved on in the spirits of good sportsmanship.

The PDP candidate's position is opposed to his faction of the PDP national leadership that had rejected the results in its entirety citing very frivolous irregularities in its conduct by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). 

He had at the conclusion of polls said "he was studding the result and

"will make his position on the outcome of the election known in due course."

 Jegede, who polled over 150,380 votes to Akeredolu’s 244,842 during the poll, said that there was no need to continue to fight over the matter since the people of Ondo State had decided on who they want to serve them at this time. He said, 

“I have taken a decision to move on and I wish Governor Rotimi Akeredolu success, promising to release an official statement later in the day.

“I speak for myself. I believe that if I cannot serve the people of Ondo State now, another opportunity will come for me to do so at another time. I have a profession and I am returning to my law practice. 

“There is always need to demonstrate true statesmanship and that is what I have done,” Jegede said. 

Vanguard learnt that Jegede has not filed any petition against Akeredolu’s victory as expected in law more than 21 days after the result was declared as a demonstration of his sincerity not to challenge the outcome. It appears his party the PDP too has rescind its decision to go to court to challenge the outcome of the election as doing otherwise will fall short of the electoral law since the 21 days required by law for litigants to file their complains has passed.