Osun State Was Under Siege – Ademola Adeleke

Senator Ademola Adeleke, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun governorship election, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the rerun election which he lost on Thursday.

The election that originally took place on Saturday, September 22, 2018, was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday, September 23.

This was because the victory margin of 353 votes of first-placed Adeleke (254,698 votes) over second-placed Gboyega Oyetola (254,345 votes) of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) was less than the 3498 votes cancelled in seven polling units in Orolu local government area (3 polling units), Ife South LGA (2), Ife North LGA (1) and Osogbo LGA (1).

In the the results that have been announced at the affected polling units on Thursday, Adeleke (325 votes) lost the election to Gboyega (1160 votes) who beat him with 835 votes.

When Adeleke’s previous lead of 353 is added to his tally in the rerun, he’s still 482 votes behind Oyetola, meaning that the APC candidate is set to be announced winner of the election.

With the final official result expected to be declared at the INEC secretariat in Osogbo, the state capital, Adeleke has called on INEC to declare him the true winner of the election.

The candidate said the election was not free and fair and alleged that PDP members were harassed from voting at polling units across the state.

He said, “This is not a free and fair election. Osun state is under siege; we are at war in Osun. They didn’t allow my party to even vote. It’s only APC people they allowed to vote. The security agents and INEC have compromised so there’s no election in Osun today.

“I urge INEC, with immediate effect to cancel today’s election and declare me the winner because I’ve already won the election. This is a kangaroo election with all the security agents intimidating my party faithfuls. All the people that wante to vote, they drove them; so this is not an election. Nigeria is in trouble. We’re at war in Osun.”

Adeleke also disclosed that he has enough evidence to prove that he has already won the election and will prove it at a tribunal if he has to.

“Like I said before, we’re not a violent people. The option is there for us to go to court, tribunal. We have a lot of evidences that we’ve won the election already,” he said.