Be good losers, Ajimobi tells political opponents

The Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has called on the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Teslim Folarin, and other political parties that lost April 11 governorship election to be good losers and team up with him in his quest to take the state to higher height.

The governor spoke during the presentation of certificates of return to the winners of the March 28 National Assembly and April 11 governorship elections in Ibadan on Friday.

Also at the event, the National Commissioner in charge of Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti states, Prof. Lai Olurode, lamented the number of invalid votes during the elections, saying that the wasted votes could have made a difference between the losers and winners.

He blamed the waste on lack of voter education and revealed that Oyo State had the second highest percentage in the South-West.

The governor said, “This election is the most credible, freest and fairest in the history of Nigeria. We cannot complete this debt of gratitude without acknowledging our fellow contestants who ran the 2015 elections race with us. The contests were keen, the race was swift but no one’s head was bruised at the end of this brotherly struggle for power.

“No one is the loser at the end of the day. There was no victor, no vanquished at the end of it all. The people of Oyo State, indeed democracy, are the winners. Let us be robust sportsmen who receive victory with sober reflection and take losses without bitterness but with stoic surrender to the will of the people.

“I must advise that we should not be sore losers. We should purge ourselves of electoral illiteracy. Don’t let us resort to self help and acrimony. I extend a hand of fellowship to other candidates to join me in the quest to further develop the state. The combination of attributes possessed by each candidate will be useful for the development of the state.”

While looking back at the protest that greeted the posting of Resident Electoral Commissioner, Rufus Akeju, to the state, the INEC national commissioner, Olurode, said the protests were sponsored by politicians who did not want a free and fair election.

He said, “In Oyo State, the hue and cry that greeted the posting of Akeju as the REC must have come from politicians who abhor free and fair election. We cannot continue like this in this country by disrespecting institutions. Nobody in INEC is pregnant with elections. The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, is not pregnant with votes. We allow the people to speak with their votes and we respect their choices. They might in the process, unfortunately, make wrong choices, but that is their choice.”

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