Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party has won the State Governorship election, held on Saturday after securing victory in 19 out of the 30 Local Government Areas in the state.
BusinessDay reports that Adeleke polled 511,067 votes across the 30 Local Government Areas, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, scored 444,815 votes. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, recorded 17,180 votes.
Adeleke recorded some of his biggest margins in Ede North, where he polled 35,427 votes against Oyebamiji’s 10,283, and Ede South, where he scored 26,188 votes against the APC candidate’s 6,219.
In Osogbo Local Government, Adeleke secured 36,480 votes, while Oyebamiji scored 30,474. In Ife East, Adeleke polled 27,201 votes against Oyebamiji’s 18,600.
The APC candidate also recorded strong performances in several Local Government Areas. In Irewole, Oyebamiji polled 29,972 votes against Adeleke’s 10,934, while in Boripe he scored 19,963 votes against 12,448 for Adeleke.
In Ilesa East, Oyebamiji secured 16,208 votes to defeat Adeleke, who scored 12,280. He also won Olorunda with 24,671 votes against Adeleke’s 23,514.
The contest was closed in some Local Government Areas. In Boluwaduro, Adeleke scored 7,118 votes against Oyebamiji’s 7,050, while in Ayedaade, Adeleke polled 16,681 votes against the APC candidate’s 15,71
However, the collation process, was marked by complaints of irregularities in some polling units.
Collation officers for Ife Central, Orolu, Odo-Otin, Ife East, Iwo, Atakumosa East, Ayedaade, Isokan and Olorunda local governments reported issues including over-voting, ballot snatching, violence, disruption of polling units and inter-party conflicts.
The complaints led to the cancellation of results in these polling units.
In Ife East, no party agent signed the results, according to the information presented during the collation.
Announcing the result of the poll at about 7:49am, the Chief Returning Officer and the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Professor Joshua Ogunwole disclosed that Accord Party polled a total of 511,067 votes while All Progressives Congress, APC polled 444,815 votes.
The Chief Returning Officer said ‘Adeleke Ademola of the Accord Party having certified the requirements of the law is hereby declared winner and returned elected.’