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• Accord vows to replicate Osun victory in 2027
• PAACA flags duplicate IReV uploads, 4% voter-data discrepancy
From Lateef Dada, Osogbo and Okwe Obi, Abuja
Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has received his Certificate of Return for a second term from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), pledging to use his renewed mandate to unite the state, heal the wounds of the election and accelerate development.
But even as Adeleke formally received the certificate, the aftermath of the election continued to generate political and institutional debate, with the Accord Party vowing to build on its performance in the poll, while an independent review raised concerns over aspects of INEC’s electronic results transmission system.
The certificate was presented to Adeleke by INEC National Commissioner, Professor Kunle Ajayi, at the commission’s office in Osogbo.
Accepting the mandate, the governor expressed gratitude to the people of Osun State, but struck a solemn note over the violence, injuries and deaths recorded during the electoral process.
Paying tribute to victims including Ezekiel Olapade, Aderogba Ajayi, Remi Abass and Kolade Eluyera, Adeleke said no political ambition was worth the life of any citizen.
“No election, political office, or ambition is worth the life of a single citizen,” he said.
As part of efforts to assist victims and their families, the governor announced the establishment of a N500 million Osun State Election Violence Victims Endowment Fund for verified victims and bereaved families.
He also announced full university scholarships, through the Adeleke family’s Springtime Development Foundation, for children and dependants of those who lost their lives.
A verification and relief committee, chaired by the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Adewale Olumide Egbedun, will oversee the distribution of the assistance.
Adeleke stressed that the intervention was humanitarian rather than political, declaring that the election season had ended.
“The election is over. The campaign is over. The contest is over. Now is the time to govern, unite, heal, and build.”
He pledged to intensify efforts in infrastructure, healthcare, education, workers’ welfare and economic development, assuring residents that he remained governor for all, irrespective of political affiliation.
Accord eyes 2027
While Adeleke settles into his second-term mandate, the Accord Party said it would seek to reproduce its performance in Osun in the 2027 general elections.
Pelumi Olajengbesi, spokesperson of the Adeleke Governorship Campaign Council and an Accord Party candidate, vowed to defeat Oluwole Oke, the All Progressives Congress (APC) representative for Oriade/Obokun Federal Constituency, in the 2027 House of Representatives election.
Olajengbesi cited the party’s performance in the recent governorship election, saying Accord polled 33,366 votes in Oriade and Obokun local government areas against APC’s 30,983, giving it a margin of 2,383 votes.
He described his candidacy as an attempt to break what he called a long-standing political monopoly in the constituency.
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Oke has represented the constituency in the House of Representatives since 2003.
IReV questions
Meanwhile, the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) has raised concerns over aspects of INEC’s electronic transmission and publication of results from the Osun governorship election.
The organisation said its EveryVotes initiative, in collaboration with Legis360, found that some result sheets were uploaded more than once on INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
PAACA Executive Director, Ezenwa Nwagwu, said at a press briefing in Abuja that the review identified duplicate uploads in six polling units, with no indication on the portal of which version should be regarded as the authoritative copy.
He, however, said the findings did not alter the outcome of the election.
EveryVotes independently collated Form EC 8A result sheets available on IReV for 3,749 of the state’s 3,763 polling units and found that the overall result announced by INEC was consistent with the available polling-unit records.
According to INEC’s official figures, Adeleke won with 511,067 votes, defeating APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji, who polled 444,814 votes, a margin of 66,253 votes.
Nwagwu said the independent review reproduced the same winner and runner-up and a virtually identical margin, despite the gaps in its dataset.
However, he said the review found other weaknesses, including handwriting and clerical errors on physical result sheets and discrepancies between accredited-voter figures recorded on the sheets and INEC’s official accredited-voter total.
According to the review, the discrepancy was about four per cent, raising questions about reconciliation between physical result sheets and electronic accreditation data generated through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
Nwagwu stressed that none of the discrepancies changed the election outcome.
The organisation recommended that INEC strengthen the IReV system by introducing machine-readable, time-stamped and version-controlled result data, enabling the public to identify when results were uploaded, whether they were subsequently replaced and which version was authoritative.
It also called for stronger reconciliation between physical result sheets and electronic accreditation data.
Beyond the electronic-results concerns, EveryVotes reported observations of vote-buying, violence, low voter turnout and inadequate provisions for voters with disabilities.
Nwagwu said party agents were observed attempting to induce or interfere with voters at about two out of every five polling units monitored, describing vote-buying as a major threat to electoral credibility.
INEC recorded 2,339,544 registered voters and 1,010,684 accredited voters, representing a turnout of about 43.2 per cent.
Despite the concerns, the organisation described the election as largely peaceful and commended voters and INEC personnel for the conduct of the poll and the availability of essential election materials.
It urged INEC and other stakeholders to address the identified weaknesses ahead of future elections, stressing that electoral credibility depends not only on the final result but also on the transparency of the process through which the result is verified.
