We Won’t Declare Osun Election Inconclusive This Time, INEC Vows

As results from various wards and local government areas in Osun State for the Saturday governorship election is being collated and announced, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that the exercise will end on the first ballot.

The supervising INEC National Commissioner, Prof Kunle Ajayi, while speaking ahead of the final collation, gave the assurance that the election will not be declared inconclusive.

This is reference to what happened in 2018 when the election was declared inconclusive as collation was ongoing and Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was leading.

A rerun election was subsequently organised within the week and Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won.
Due to the 2018 incident, some protesters had on Sunday stormed the INEC collation centre in the state capital, Osogbo, demanding that the exercise should end on first ballot.

Prof. Ajayi disclosed that the election results of the 30 Local Government Areas had been uploaded to the INEC portal.

Meanwhile, the PDP candidate Ademola Adeleke had on Saturday evening celebrated his early win as the elections were being collated and announced LGA by LGA. The results so far uploaded show that Adeleke is leading with over 10,000 votes.

In a video that surfaced online, Adeleke and popular Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, known as Davido, were also seen celebrating the PDP’s early victory.

The Osun State chapter of the PDP has also claimed an early victory going by the results. 

The Caretaker Chairman of the party, Dr Akindele Adekunle in a statement on Saturday night, claimed that the party had secured more than two-third majority win spread across the 30 LGAs in the state.

Adekunle said, “We want to assert that Ademola Adeleke has won this election overwhelmingly going by results at our disposal.” 

He warned against any alteration of the result.

“We warn against any plot by some agents of chaos to doctor the results. We specifically call on the electoral commission to watch fifth columnists within its fold who may have been contracted for the hatchet job. Osun people have decided and their votes must be respected,” the statement indicated.