Gboyega Oyetola, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress has been declared winner of the Osun State governorship election after yesterday’s rerun by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In their appraisal of the Osun State rerun governorship election, the missions of the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom, who were on the ground to monitor the exercise, said there were incidents of harassment and intimidation of voters.
Reading the missions’ joint report, the US Consul General, Mr John F. Bray, said, “The missions of the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom observed voting at polling stations in Osun today (Thursday). We witnessed what appeared to be incidents of interference and intimidation of voters and have reports of harassment of party monitors, journalists and domestic observers.
“We are very concerned by these reports and we will be checking with stakeholders to determine the facts. We call on all stakeholders to remain calm.”
The rerun of the Osun State governorship election was held in seven polling units across four council areas on Thursday with the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gboyega Oyetola, beating the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Ademola Adeleke.
The returning officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, declared that the APC candidate, Oyetola, won the governorship election by scoring a total number of 255,505 votes while Adeleke of the PDP polled 255,023 votes.
This was, however, met with protests by Adeleke, the PDP, and the Coalition of United Political Parties, among others.
Adeleke had won the main election on Saturday with 353 votes after polling 254,698 against Oyetola’s 254,345. On Thursday, both candidates relied on 2,637 votes in the seven units where the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared rerun to win the final contest.
The rerun was held in one polling unit in Oyere in Ife-North, one polling unit in Olode in Ife-South, another polling unit in Osi, Ife-South, three polling units in Orolu, Kajola Local Government Area of the state and one polling unit in Osogbo.
In Oyere, APC had 126 votes while PDP had two votes. In Olode, APC scored 283 votes with the PDP scoring 15 votes. In Osi, APC had 172 votes while the PDP had 21 votes. In Ifon, Orolu, APC had 111 votes against PDP’s three votes. In Gbogbo, Orolu, APC had 41 while PDP scored 64 votes. Also in Idiya, Orolu, the APC scored 128 votes against the PDP’s 55 votes.
In Osogbo, the APC scored 299 votes while the PDP scored 165 votes. In all, APC scored 1,160 to beat the PDP which scored 325 in the rerun. When added to the result of the main election on Saturday, APC had a total of 255, 505 votes against PDP’s 255,023. In the run-up to the rerun of the election, the PDP alleged that INEC shortchanged its candidate in some of the council areas by announcing figures that were lower than what Adeleke actually scored.
It claimed that the actual margin of the win against Oyetola in the first election was 4,740 and not 353. The party said that INEC added 2,000 votes to what the APC polled in Osogbo and 1,387 to what it scored in Olorunda. The party also alleged that 1,000 votes were deducted from what Adeleke scored in the Ayedaade council area.
