Ondo Deputy Governor Agboola Ajayi’s hope of clinching the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2020 governorship election in the state suffered a huge blow as he lost to Eyitayo Jegede.
Jegede who is a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state will be the PDP’s flagbearer in the state.
Jegede polled 888 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ondo Deputy Governor, Hon Agboola Ajayi, who garnered 657 votes
The primary was keenly contested between Jegede and Ajayi, who joined the PDP last month after he resigned from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Other aspirants in the race such as National Vice Chairman PDP South West, Dr. Eddy Olafeso polled 175; former Ondo PDP spokesman Banji Okunomo got 90 votes; Ayorinde Olabode garnered 95 votes; Senator Kunlere Boluwaji polled 33 votes, Ebiseni Sola got 29 votes while Godday Erewa scored 14 votes.
A total of 2,111 delegates voted at the primary.
Members and supporters of the PDP ignored warning not to come to the venue if they were not delegates.
Trouble initially started when some PDP youths claimed to have caught some people with thumb-printed ballot papers.
The ballot papers were later discovered to be samples used to enlighten party supporters on the mode of voting.
Those caught with the ballot papers samples were beaten.
Accreditation of delegates began at about 1pm while voting began at about 2:30pm.
Chairman of the Primary Committee, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, assured them of free and fair conduct.
There was a delay after voting has ended by delegates when 17 names of special delegates surfaced.
It was gathered introduction of fresh 17 names after all the delegates have voted caused fresh crisis as many of the aspirants insisted that the names were strange to them.
The Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi -led Committee went to a closed-door meeting for over 30 minutes and came out without knowing what to do with the list.
It was gathered that the list contained names of former local government chairmen of the party who defected to other parties and later returned back.
Hundreds of supporters of the PDP remained at the venue until the ballots were counted and results announced.
