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Oluseye Ojo and Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
The hope of Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) returning to the Senate for the second time has been halted by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in a keenly contested Oyo South senatorial district election held last Saturday.
Ajimobi, who was in the Senate between 2003 and 2007, became governor in 2011 and will complete his second term in office on May 29, this year. He contested the election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The Returning Officer for the senatorial poll, Prof Wole Akinsola of the University of Ibadan, declared Balogun winner of the poll on Monday afternoon.
But the APC senatorial candidates in Oyo Central, Senator Teslim Folarin, who is a former Senate leader, and Oyo North, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, the current Senate Committee Chairman on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Cybercrime, won their elections.
Our correspondent reports that APC produced two senators, while PDP produced one senator in the just concluded election. The PDP Senator-elect for Oyo South, Dr. Kola Balogun, is a former Commissioner for Commerce in the state and younger brother of Oba Lekan Balogun, the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, who is also the next-in-rank to the stool of Olubadan of Ibadanland.
The result of election from Oyo South senatorial district election showed that showed that the PDP candidate, Balogun, defeated Ajimobi with 13,502 votes, having polled 105,720 votes while Ajimobi scored 92,218 votes.
Senator Adedoji Akanbi, representing Oyo South in the Senate, who contested the poll on the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC), came third with 49,437 votes. Akanbi left APC for ADC when he could not secure a return ticket to the Senate in APC.
The candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Dr. Fola Akinosun, who dumped APC after he lost at the senatorial primary to Ajimobi, had 13,149 votes.
In Oyo North senatorial district, Senator Buhari polled a total of 107,703 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola of the PDP, who scored 89, 365 votes. Akande-Adeola was the majority leader of the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015.
The Returning Officer, Prof Jonathan Aileru, who announced the result, stated: “Senator Buhari, having polled the highest votes in the election, is hereby re-elected as the Senator representing Oyo North.”
In Oyo Central, Senator Teslim Folarin, who served as Senate Leader from 2011 to 2015, polled a total of 91,080 votes to win the election. His closest rival, Chief Bisi Ilaka, of PDP scored 83,600 votes, while the candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Temitope Olatoye, currently representing Akinyele/Lagelu federal constituency in the House of Representatives, had 41,377 votes. The candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) also polled 41,657 votes.
