‘I hereby declare that Ademola Adeleke having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and he is returned’ stated Ogundipe at the end of the election acclaimed peaceful by all.
Other candidates, who took part in yesterday’s exercise, include a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun, of the Labour Party; Oyegoke Omigbodun of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party. The list also included Munirudeen Atanda of the Action Democratic Party, ADP; Lukman Awoyemi of Allied Peoples’ Movement, APM, and Busuyi Ayowole of Peoples Redemption Party, PRP.
Saturday election was the second time that both Adeleke and Oyetola, the two with the highest votes out of the 15 contestants met at the poll and the one that saw Adeleke taking a pound of flesh from Oyetola.
Adeleke, a former senator from Osun west senatorial district between 2017 and 2019, battled Oyetola in the state’s 2018 governorship election which was narrowly won by the latter in controversial circumstances.
Adeleke was leading in the 2018 election before it was declared inconclusive by INEC which also ordered a rerun in seven polling units.
The heavily militarised rerun election won by Oyetola, allegedly saw many voters being disenfranchised by armed thugs.
Saturday election however provided the opportunity for the two to reignite their rivalry at the poll across the 30 local government areas of the state. This time, and in a clear manner, Adeleke got the better of Oyetola, polling a total of 403, 371 votes from the 30 LGAs and winning the highest votes in 17 of the 30 LGAs of the state. Oyetola who came second, got 375, 027 votes while he won the highest in 13 LGAs.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ademola Adeleke won Ede North Local Government, Ede South, Ifelodun, Boluwaduro, Egbedore, Odo Otin, Osogbo, Ila, Atakumosa West, Olorunda, Ilesa West, Obokun, Oriade, Orolu, Ife North, Irepodun and Ejigbo.
The Local Governments won by Oyetola of APC are Boripe, Ilesa East, Ayedire, Ifedayo, Ife Central, Ayedaade, Iwo, Olaoluwa, Isokan, Atakumosa East, Ife South, Ife Central and Ife East.
The election which was held amid tight security and a large turnout of voters saw political parties adopting new methods of vote-buying.
Caretaker Chairman of the PDP in the state, Akindele Adekunle, said that “the party secured majority as well as more than two third spread across the 30 local governments and area office, adding that the victory of the party at the poll is a product of mass mobilisation and the grand coalition of people of Osun State against bad governance and insensitive leadership”.
He thanked the “people of Osun State for endorsing and affirming Ademola Adeleke’s governorship bid, the party sternly warns against any attempt to tamper with the result of the election.
ALSO READ:INEC Bows To Public pressure, Shifts Voter Registration Again By Two Weeks, Closes July 31
“We want to assert that Ademola Adeleke has won this election overwhelmingly going by results at our disposal. We warn against any plot by some agents of chaos to doctor the results”.