The election, conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) held in the 18 LGAs and 203 political wards of the state at the weekend.

Twelve political parties participated in the LG election, which was marred with low turnout of voters a a result of the heavy presence of armed security agencies.

ODIEC had on Sunday night declared APC chairmanship and councilorship candidates the winner of the election exercise in all the 18 LGAs and 203 wards of the state.

But addressing journalists on Monday in Akure, Ebenezer Akinbuli, Chairman of SDP in the state, alleged that the LG election was marred with irregularities, harassment and intimidation of the opposition parties candidates.

He described the local council election as a sham, emphasising that results of the exercise announced by ODIEC did not reflect the will of the people.

Akinbuli also accused ODIEC of bias and collusion with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the election in favour of the party’s chairmanship and councilorship candidates.

“We are condemning the outcome of the LG election because there is no strict compliance to the rules that guide the conduct of the exercise. It was a broadday light robbery.

“We are calling for the cancellation of the election. They manipulated the governorship election held last year. Why not allow a free process for the LG election. It is sham.

“In the election that we monitored in Ondo East and Odigbo LGAs, there are no single security agencies in the polling units. We’re the ones providing security for them, and it was why we recorded low turnout of the voters in the election.

“We have not seen the results, and they are planning to swear in for their candidates. So, this is nothing but political slavery. They are trying to turn the state into a one party system,” he said.

According to him, the SDP agents stationed in the LGAs for the election reported widespread delays and harassment of its members by armed thugs allegedly working with the APC.

Akinbuli, who recounted his personal experience at Ondo East LGA, where he reportedly experienced the assault and beating of an SDP candidate in the exercise, also demanded the removal of ODIEC chairman.

He accused the ODIEC chairman of failing in its constitutional duty to conduct a free, fair, and credible election in the state.

“We are agitating for the removal of the ODIEC chairman because of the electoral fraud perpetrated during the LG election. The election was fraud 2:0 promo max. He assured us that he would be fair umpire, but he did not abide by what he promised.

“In fact, the presiding officers were not giving result sheets. They were only giving a plane sheet to write results. They were busy transferring results into the form ECA. They did not collate the result at the collation centres but brought them down to the ODIEC office.

“We also saw ballot papers that were already thumb printed in the favour of the APC, and they brought this to the collation centre. It was at the collation centre that they started imputing result of the election,” Mr Akinbuli added.

He, however, promised to approach the local government election tribunal to seek redress over the weekend LG poll.

Efforts to reach the ODIEC chairman for comments were unsuccessful at the time of filling this report.

Recall that governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa had described the election as a step towards enhancing grassroots development.

Aiyedatiwa also commended ODIEC for the conduct of the exercise, expressing the commitment of his administration to the effective running of local government system in the state.