Adeleke beats incumbent, Oyetola; declared Osun governor-elect

On his second time of trying, Senator Ademola Adeleke has won the Osun State governorship election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party the winner of the election in the early hours of Sunday.

The Returning Officer for the election and Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, announced that Adeleke got a total of 403,371 votes to beat the incumbent, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, who got 375,027 votes in a keenly contested race.

He said: “I declare Adeleke Ademola Jackson Nurudeen on behalf of the chairman of INEC of the PDP having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and he is returned elected”.

According to the total votes recorded by the electoral umpire, the PDP won 17 of the 30 Local Government Areas of the state, while the APC won the remaining 13.

The PDP won in Ede North, Ede South, Ifelodun, Boluwaduro, Egbedore, Odo Otin, Osogbo, Ila, Atakumosa West, Olorunda, Ilesa West, Obokun, Oriade, Orolu, Ife North, Irepodun, and Ejigbo LGAs.

The APC, on the other hand, won in Boripe, Ilesa East, Ayedire, Ifedayo, Ife Central, Ayedaade, Iwo, Olaoluwa, Isokan, Atakumosa East, Ife South, Ife Central, and Ife East LGAs.

The election proved to be a two-horse race as predicted despite having 13 other political parties in the race.

Other candidates included Akin Ogunbiyi of Accord Party; Lasun Yusuff of Labour Party; Oyegoke Omigbodun of Social Democratic Party; Segun Awojide of African Action Congress; Kehinde Atanda of Action Democratic Party; Awoyemi Lukuman of Allied Peoples Movement; Adebayo Elisha of All Peoples Party; and Adeleke Adedapo of Boot Party.

Rasaq Saliu of New Nigeria Peoples Party; Abede Samuel of National Rescue Movement; Ayowole Adedeji of Peoples Redemption Party; Ademola Adeseye of Young Peoples Party; and Adesuyi Olufemi of Zenith Labour Party also participated in the election.

The election was held across 3,763 units in the 30 LGAs of the state and witnessed a huge voter turnout and was largely peaceful.

Of the 1,955,657 registered voters in the state, 1,479,595 Permanent Voter Cards were collected before the election.

To keep the peace in the state, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, had deployed about 21,000 police operatives, apart from other security outfits also present which included the military and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

The poll was, however, characterised by massive vote-buying, which drew the condemnation of some candidates and civil society organisations.