I’ll pursue my case on fraudulent Ondo APC Primary to S’Court – Jimoh Ibrahim

The All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election held on April 20, 2024, to choose the party’s candidate for governor of Ondo State, on November 16, 2024, has been characterized as a massive fraud by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, representing Ondo South Senatorial District in the 10th Assembly, stressing that he is ‘already in court with the determination to pursue the case to a logical conclusion at the Supreme Court.’

The incumbent, Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, was declared the winner of the said primary. 

However, the senator questioned the electoral process during a press conference with members of the National Assembly Press Corp (Senate) on Tuesday in Abuja, adding that all indications, including reports from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 14 candidates, and a significant portion of party members, pointed to the fact that no election was held throughout the 203 wards of Ondo State on April 20, 2024.  

Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, who gave journalists certified true copies of the INEC reports, said that INEC officials, who were hired to oversee the process, concluded that the election was cancelled in 15 of the 18 local government areas in Ondo State, accounting for more than 80% of the anticipated total votes.  

He challenged the governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo, who served as the election committee’s chairman, and his secretary, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, to present documentation of the April 20, 2024, election, including video evidence of any candidate casting a ballot in their respective wards—including Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who was falsely declared the winner.

The senator rejected the notion of negotiating a resolution with the party’s upper echelons or abiding by the party supremacy ideology to end the animosity over the primary’s result.

He said, “I am already in court with the determination to pursue the case to a logical conclusion at the Supreme Court. I have exhausted all the internal party mechanisms for political settlement, including writing a petition to the Appeal Committee set up by the party and also wrote to the National Working Committee, NWC the highest decision-making of the party, all to no avail. Therefore, I am at liberty to approach the court of law for judicial solutions.”