I didn't indict Obanikoro over aborted by-election -Ondo Rec

 The Resident Electoral Commission of the Independent National Electoral in Ondo State, Mr. Akin Orebiyi, has clarified that his statement on the conduct of the Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, was in “the context of the malpractices generally perpetrated by political parties during the Ilaje/Ese-Odo by-election on April 5.In a statement on Thursday which he personally signed, Orebiyi denied saying that the minister “was in Ese-Odo/Ilaje Federal Constituency on Saturday April 5, and was seen going round disrupting the conduct of the election.”He said, “This statement is not true. What was meant simply was that the presence of the Honourable Minister(who had been in the constituency earlier and left before the election day) led to some agitated youths mistaken one of our Supervising Honourable Resident Electoral Commissioners for Hon. Minister and nearly lynched the said Hon. Commissioner on Sunday, April 16.”Orebiyi noted that the intention of his statement was to denounce the near-lynching of a colleague of mine who was mistaken for the minister and not to denigrate his person or imply that he was responsible for the mob action.The REC, during a stakeholders meeting on Tuesday chided political parties for their misconduct during the election and insinuated that Obanikoro was also involved in the breach of the electoral process.His comments had since generated strong criticisms from the Peoples Democratic Party at the state and at the national levels, whereas it had been commended by the Labour Party in Ondo