The appeal committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ondo State, set up to handle petitions arising from the just concluded governorship primary in the state has recommended the annulment of the exercise.

Recall that the primary election had produced Rotimi Akeredolu as the party’s candidate for the November 26 governorship election.

Akeredolu was declared winner of the exercise by the chairman of the election committee and Governor of Jigawa State, Mohammed Abubakar, with a total of 699 votes.

The process appeared peaceful at the time as all the other governorship aspirants congratulated Akeredolu, expressing satisfaction with the exercise.

Olusegun Abraham, Akeredoulu’s main rival, who had been endorsed by APC chieftain, Bola Tinubu, issued a statement two days after the primary, pledging to support the party’s candidate.

He however made a U-turn on September 7 and said the primary election should be cancelled due to irregularities.

Other aspirants, including Olusola Oke and Ajayi Boroffice, also joined in the call that Akeredolu’s victory be annulled.

The Hellen Bendega-led appeal committee said it received a total of six petitions and after thorough consideration decided that there was merit in the call that the election be annulled.

It also recommended that a rerun primary be organised as soon as possible in order to meet up with the deadline as stipulated in the electoral act.

The panel also suggested that the party’s national leadership should revert to the initial delegates’ list, which was given to aspirants in Abuja prior to the election.