Osun Decides: APC Thrashes PDP, INEC Names Oyetola Winner, PDP Kicks

Osun Decides: APC Thrashes PDP, INEC Names Oyetola Winner, PDP Kicks

Osun, Nigeria Business News 28th September, 2018: The All Progressives Congress (APC) finally subdued the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced its candidate, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, as the eventual winner of the Osun State governorship election.


The Returning Officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, said Oyetola prevailed over PDP’s Senator Ademola Adeleke, his main opponent at yesterday’s supplementary election, the main one held last Saturday having ended inconclusively.

It was a clean sweep for Oyetola who had trailed behind Adeleke by 254,345 votes to 254,698, leaving a margin of 353 votes.

At yesterday’s contest held in seven units across four local governments of the state, the APC cancelled the negative margin, besting the PDP flag bearer by a margin of 472 votes.

Fuwape said Oyetola scored 1,150 votes at yesterday’s duel to bring his haul in the race to 255,495 votes, while Adeleke got 325 more votes to close up at 255,023.

Specifically, the APC scored 299 votes in Osogbo LGA; 280 in Orolu; 455 in Ife South; and 126 in Ife North.

He said the PDP garnered 165 votes in Osogbo; 122 in Orolu; 36 in Ife South and two in Ife North.

Announcing the final results, Fuwape, who is also the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure, said having scored the highest number of votes, Oyetola was returned as the winner of the governorship election and Governor-elect of Osun State.

But the PDP said the APC victory might be short-lived, describing it as “electoral robbery”, which will be resisted. The state Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Soji Adagunodo, described the supplementary election “as the most brazen assault on democracy and biggest robbery ever witnessed in the history of the state.”

He accused the security personnel of aiding “the open robbery perpetrated by the APC.”

Adagunodo explained that thousands of eligible voters were chased away from their homes in Orolu, Ife North and Ife South in the early hours.

He said, “Scores of our supporters in those local governments were shot and matchetted on their way to polling centres and in the full glare of security men. Hundreds of people holding PVCs from other polling units were accredited and allowed to vote in Osogbo and Ife South Local Government Areas. PDP agent in Olode was axed and abducted about 7a.m. yesterday.

“It was regrettable that election in seven polling units could not be freely and fairly concluded by the INEC. We reject any return of results from this sham and call on the INEC authorities in Abuja to direct that the so called supplementary election result collation be put on hold.”

The PDP state chairman further invited leaders of thought in Nigeria and the International community to “rescue Nigeria’s democracy from being ruined.”

He called on all members and supporters of our party to resist any attempt to foist a concocted election result on the people of Osun using all legal means at their disposal.”

However, the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, of the APC in Osun State, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, countered the accusations against his party, saying, “The PDP was unable to manipulate the result this time around, so they are crying foul.”

Oyatomi said, “We have always known that the PDP had made elaborate arrangements to rig the election through the manipulation of the card readers and it was this process that gave them the votes in the first ballot.”

He asserted that the PDP win in the first ballot was a surprise.

According to him, “Most people in Osun had the believe that it would be a straight fight between the APC and Social Democratic Party (SDP). But as God would have it, Osun was saved from the vultures.”

Oyatomi also noted, “They attempted to win by fraud, they failed in the first round and eventually lost the rerun election.”

Apart from Ward 5 Unit 17 in the Osogbo metropolis, polling units in the remaining three local government areas were domiciled in far-flung areas that were not easily accessible.

However, the election was characterised by heavy presence of security agents and a good turnout of voters.

Source: Thisday

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