PDP sweeps Ondo council polls

Boroffice, govt disagree over bitumen deal
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has won the elections conducted at the weekend in all 18 councils and 202 of the 203 wards of Ondo State.

Chairman of the state’s Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC), Prof. Olugbenga Ige, made the announcement yesterday in Akure after taking receipt of election results from returning officers.

According to the result, while the PDP won all the chairmanship seats, it, however, lost the only councillorship seat of Ward 9, Oba-Ile in Akure North Council to the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN).

The ruling party solely contested for the polls in Irele, Akure North, Ondo East and Akure South West, while only the Labour Party (LP) was only opponent in Okitipupa and Ilaje councils.

The People for Democratic Change (PDC) vied in Odigbo local council just as the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) tested its popularity in Owo council alongside 10 others.

In all, 15 parties participated in the exercise, which the All Progressives Congress (APC) stayed away from.Meanwhile, the state government and the senator representing Ondo North on the platform of the APC, Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, have taken different positions on the bitumen exploration contract entered with a Texas, United States-based firm, Liquefied Resources.

While Boroffice ‎urged the ‎Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ‎(EFCC) to probe the deal, the state Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade on the other hand, said the senator was either ignorant or just poiliticising the issue.

Boroffice, who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, in a statement yesterday, alleged that “credible reports have revealed that ‎the over-hyped firm with no functional website was founded in 2012, with a staff strength of about four employees. Furthermore, the Managing Director of the Nigerian subsidiary claimed he joined the 2012 incorporated firm in 2006. What an irreconcilable dissimilarity! How could a four-year old firm with about four employees be trusted to undertake such a huge task of exploring bitumen in commercial quantity?” he queried.

Countering the claim, Akinmade said bitumen remained on the exclusive list, stating that what the state government simply did was to secure a licence to explore the mineral.