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A landmark moment was witnessed in Nigerian politics after the Osun State Governorship Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, handed governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke, the mandate to be governor of the south-west state considered one of the strongholds of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in that region of Nigeria.
Senator Adeleke had polled 126,475 votes with Oyetola following him with 110,775 votes after 15 local government areas announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), while at the final reconciliation of all results from the 30 local government areas on the state, Adeleke scored 254,698 votes while Oyetola scored 254,345.
However, the results were declared inconclusive by the electoral body who stated that the margin of victory between Adeleke and Oyetola, which stood at just 354 votes was far lower than the number of voided ballots, which was put at over 3,000.
As a result, INEC declared a rerun would be conducted a week later following Section 153 of the Electoral Act which stipulates that a rerun be conducted if the margin of victory at an election is lower than the cancelled votes.
PDP challenged this decision, however, with the party in a statement by the Director of Publicity of Adeleke’s election campaign, Olawale Rasheed, stating: “Our attention has been drawn to reports of an alleged plan to declare the Osun governorship election inconclusive as a plot to order a re-run. We appeal to INEC to toe the path of honour and constitutionality by declaring the rightful candidate with required votes and spread, Ademola Adeleke, the winner of this hotly contested polls.”
It added: “We note with high sense of responsibility the intense pressure surrounding Osun election from the beginning. There are times however when one must stands with the people and the law by doing the right thing without fear of favour.
Now is the time for INEC to align with Osun people and resist pressure and intimidation to tamper with the will of the people. Osun people are expectant of a liberation day which is today when their yearnings to be free will be fulfilled.Delaying the announcement of the results or doctoring the outcome is an invitation to people’s anger and wrath.”
Adeleke’s camp went on to state: “We urge people of goodwill locally and internationally to prevail on the APC and her chieftains to conced defeat.Our democracy is too stressed up to be subjected to another daylight electoral robbery. We reject plan and plot for re-run;a winner has clearly emerged. To INEC chiefs,time is now to announce Senator Nurudeen Ademola as the winner of this historic election.”
The PDP Senator’s cries have now been answered by the election tribunal and its implications on the politics of the country could ripple across to other matters ongoing – especially in the one involving the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who has refused to accept the results from the 2019 general elections which saw the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, declared as winner with an advantage of more than three million votes.
Atiku is currently at the tribunal to challenge the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 23 election. INEC had declared Buhari winner of the election, saying he polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat Atiku who had 11,262,978 votes. The former Vice-President of the country alleged widespread irregularities as his reason for challenging the election results, and he had asked the tribunal to declare him authentic winner of the election or order that a fresh poll be conducted.
The PDP’s presidential candidate and his party said data from the server of INEC showed the true and correct results from state to state computation. Atiku would have his first wish towards being declared winner or having another election conducted granted when the tribunal ordered INEC to allow him have access to election materials used in the poll in order to ascertain if he was the true winner of the election.
While it remains to be seen if Atiku would get the ultimate decision he is seeking from the election tribunal, he would have been boosted greatly by the victory of Adeleke on Friday.
And he wasted little time to celebrate with the Senator when he took to Twitter to state: “Truly, the judiciary is the last hope of the common man and the defender of our democracy. Congratulations Sen. Ademola Adeleke.”
Surely, the APC will not take this big defeat sitting down, though, as we can prepare to see this case go as high and as far as possible until a final verdict is reached. So, Adeleke will want to brace up for what is coming. For now, he can enjoy the taste of victory he earned today. But the battle line has been drawn. What are your thoughts about what is to come after this landmark moment in Nigeria’s political history?
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