Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged the governor of Osun State after beating his closest rival, Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a re-run election that was conducted yesterday, Thursday.
While Oyetola got a total vote of 255,505 Adeleke got 255,023, a difference of 482 votes. The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Iyiola Omisore, who aligned with Oyetola few hours to the election also got 128,053 votes.
The chief returning officer for the election, Professor Joseph Adeola Fuwape, vice chancellor Federal University of Technology, Akure, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress the winner early Friday morning.
However, the PDP candidate has described the election as a charade and said that he has rejected its outcome.
“We report to the whole world the brazen theft and daylight swindling of Osun people who were criminally denied their rights to vote and be voted for by an anti-people conspiracy among INEC, security agencies and the ruling All Progressive Congress, the PDP in Osun state said in a statement.
”An unprecedented travesty of justice and the shattering of democratic values are ongoing in Osun state.
“The whole world is witnessing a charade in the name of an election, a deliberate effort at the imposition of a discredited leadership on the suffering people of Osun State through undisguised brutal force, applying all standards, today’s supplementary poll is a non-event as all norms of electoral process were violated.
“Voters are deliberately refused access to polling points at gun points. Those allowed to voting centres are forced to vote for APC.PDP party agents are arrested, beaten up and shut out of polling centres.PDP agents are barred from many units. Roads are blocked to stop voters and observers.
‘Journalists and election monitors are blocked from accessing many voting areas. Those who attempted gaining access are attacked by hooded thugs.PDP leaders are hounded and arrested. It was a brutal unleashing of force against unarmed election stakeholders.
But the ruling party, in a statement by its by Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy in Osun, Kunle Oyatomi, denied claims by Senator Adeleke that there were irregularities during the rerun election.
According to him, PDP was lamenting over its inability to buy votes and manipulate like they did during the first election last Saturday.
He noted that PDP party agents were absent because the police thwarted their plot of buying and trying to use the PVCs of unsuspecting voters.
The statement reads: “We have always known and have made ourselves clear before the election that the PDP had made elaborate arrangement to rig the election through the manipulation of the card readers.
“And it was this process that made them get the votes allocated to them in the first ballot.
“We like Osun people to understand that the run off votes went the way it did because the PDP was unable to manipulate the card readers this time around and fortunately the police thwarted their plot of buying and trying to use the PVCs of unsuspecting voters.
“That was why some of their leaders were arrested. So the PDP should look for other excuses.
“They attempted to win by fraud, they failed in the first round and eventually lost the rerun election,’’ Oyatomi said.
He also commended Governor Rauf Aregbesola for delivering good democratic dividends, which transformed the state, adding that the governor-elect, Oyetola, would build on the legacies of the former.
Oyatomi also commended INEC for its display of professionalism and the security agencies for ensuring the election was peaceful.
He, however, urged the people of the state to support the incoming governor in achieving the mandate of making Osun greater than its present status.
Adeleke had in a statement in Osogbo by his campaign organisation’s spokesperson, Mr Olawale Rasheed, rejected the result of the rerun poll, adding that he would seek legal redress
Election Results
Registered Voters: 1,678,985
Accredited voters: 775687
Valid Votes : 721,621
Rejected votes: 47874
Total votes cast`; 769495
Adeoti of ADP: 49,743 votes
Adeleke of PDP: 255023
Oyetola of APC: 255,505
Omisore of SDP: 128053.
