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Clement Adeyi, Osogbo and Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has won the only remaining seat in the House of Assembly for the Oriade Constituency in the supplementary election held in the state, on Saturday.
The election was earlier declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the general election on March 9.
The electoral umpire said the election was declared inconclusive because the margin between the winner and the runner up was less than the number of registered voters in the areas where votes were cancelled.
In the rerun election on Saturday, the APC candidate, Babatunde Ojo, polled 702 votes to beat his closest rival, Pelumi Olajegbensi of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who scored nine votes.
The final result later released by INEC put the total votes accruing to APC at 12,088, while PDP got 9,913 votes.
The APC had earlier won 22 out of the 26 seats, leaving PDP with three.
Meanwhile, PDP in the South West has described the victory of the party’s candidate in the last Osun State gubernatorial election, Ademola Adeleke, at the election petition tribunal as a landmark achievement for the judiciary.
National Vice Chairman (South West) of the party, Eddy Olafeso, in a statement by the Zonal Publicity Secretary, Ayo Fadaka, said the party is confident of getting victory even at appellate courts.
Olafeso said: “We’ve always known that our candidate and party won that election and that we would win at the tribunal if our case was diligently prosecuted, therefore, we give glory to God and also thank those eminent jurists who, after careful examination of the evidences placed before them, ruled that we actually won the election.
“As a party, we want to declare that elections conducted, so far, under the current leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) continue to fall short of the standard of fairness and honesty expected from the agency for it to command respect and legitimacy from Nigerians in the prosecution of its constitutional responsibilities.
“INEC continues to display partisanship in the discharge of its sacrosanct responsibilities, thereby, submitting itself to be a mere appendage of the Presidency, which continues to armtwist and guide it to certain conclusions.
“The current round of elections in our country, today, leaves so much to be desired, as INEC has invoked its guidelines curiously in states and constituencies where APC seems to be failing, and use the same to assist them against our party in other places where we are thriving; this is partisan and a double standard, which is least expected from the commission.
“We also note the comment of President Muhammadu Buhari in an address to the council of Obas, when he declared that the Osun State gubernatorial election was remote controlled for his party to win; that comment alone confirms our assertion that INEC, under its current leadership, is compromised and not fit to remain in office.”
