A mixture of jubilations and anxiety pervaded the camps of the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Gboyega Oyetola and Senator Ademola Adeleke respectively as results of Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State began to trickle in, in the ealry hours of Sunday.
Adeleke took the lead in the election as he won in 13 out of 21 local government areas declared as of the time of filing this reports, leaving eight council areas for APC.
The early results sent the PDP camp into wild jubilations, even as the APC fold cautioned against premature celebration, asking people to wait for the final tally of results.
Oyetola and Adeleke tightly gripped their local government areas, just as the PDP candidate, from results collated won in Osogbo, the state capital, polling 30, 401 votes to beat Oyetola who scored 22, 952 votes.
While Oyetola won his local government with a big margin, scoring 21, 205 votes to defeat Adeleke, who got 7, 595 votes, the PDP candidate stamped his influence in Ede South Local Government Area, garnering 19, 438 votes to beat APC which had 5, 704 votes.
PDP won in Ila Local Government Area, where a former governor of the state and first APC national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande hails from, with 13, 036 votes to APC’s 11,163 votes.
Results from other local government areas collated as of the time of filing this report showed that APC won in Iwo with 17, 421 votes, beating PDP to the second position with 16, 914 votes. Apprehension anxiety among leaders of both parties spread across the state as INEC began announcement of results from collation centre in the early hours of Sunday.
Leaders of the ruling APC in the state have cautioned the PDP and its candidate against early jubilation. PDP, APC in war of words over victory claim Meanwhile, the Osun State PDP has claimed victory in the election, affirming that collated results from the polling units confirm Adeleke’s victory.
In a statement issued at Osogbo, on Saturday evening, the caretaker chairman of the party, Dr Akindele Adekunle, declared that Adeleke won the election overwhelmingly. But in a swift reaction, the Director-General of the Campaign Council of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s re-election, Senator Ajibola Basiru, described as irresponsible, PDP’s claim, saying results were still being collated when the claim was made.
In a statement issued in Osogbo on Saturday evening, he noted that PDP’s statement was capable of setting Osun on fire, warning the party to desist from making “a frivolous and unsubstantiated claim.”
He equally called on the security agencies to take appropriate action in dealing decisively with the peddlers of this false claim as they are setting the stage for violence and chaos.
However, the PDP said the party secured majority as well as more than two-thirds of votes spread across the 30 local governments and area office.
The party noted that the victory of the party at the poll was a product of mass mobilisation and grand coalition of people of Osun State against bad governance and insensitive leadership. While thanking people of Osun for endorsing and affirming Ademola Adeleke’s governorship bid, the party warned against any attempt to tamper with the result of the election.
The party specifically called attention of the commission to “a paid agent of the state government who is currently working round the clock to tamper with the results,” vowing that any attempt to subvert the will of Osun people will be strongly resisted.
“We call on the Presidency, security agencies and the diplomatic community to nip in the bud ongoing plot to subvert the victory of PDP at today’s [yesterday’s] governorship election as we won’t be able to contain any violent reaction of the people to such evil agenda.
“We specifically call on President Muhammadu Buhari, INEC chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakub and service chiefs to urgently call Governor Oyetola and other seven governors of the APC to abort their plan to steal Osun election as the consequence of such act is a direct threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria.
“The new electoral act is a major achievement of the Buhari Presidency and it will amount to a great disservice to the nation to allow a free and fair process to end in chaos due to the antidemocratic posture of some politicians who are scared of the will of the people.
“The electoral commission under Prof Mahmud Yakub has done a great job of conducting one of the best organised elections in the land. We urge the commission chairman to protect his honour and declare the rightful winner of this election, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
“As we are preparing this press release, about seven APC governors have assembled at Osogbo to arrest the emerging victory of the PDP at today’s governorship elections.
“The APC governors are presently gathering at the state capital with the sole goal of subverting the will of Osun people. Their plan is to stop the process of results upload and collation and pressure the Electoral commission to tamper with the results.
“The APC and their hatchet man should know the PDP has collated all its results from accredited party agents and Senator Ademola Adeleke has clearly won the 2022 governorship election. It is therefore so late in the day to reverse the will of the people,” PDP said.
Party agents engage in open vote buying – CSOs
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), under the aegis of Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, lamented cases of open negotiation of buying and selling of votes well-coordinated by party agents in many of the polling units during the election.
The CSOs observation was contained in the second preliminary report issued during the state-wide monitoring of the election.
According to the re- port made available Sunday Tribune, the election witnessed a high rate of permanent voter card collection recording a total of 1,518,303 as reported by INEC.
“Voting day started peacefully not showing any indications of the apprehension that had trailed the days preceding the election.
“Situation Room received reports from its network of observers of early arrival of materials and INEC officials in most of the polling units which led to early commencement of voting.
“At this time, Situation Room made the following observations: “There was adequate presence of security personnel across the state and deployed across most of the polling units visited.”
However, the Situation Room, expressed concern over the non-payment of allowances to the security personnel deployed by various agencies ahead of the election.
Meanwhile, the CSOs commended the security personnel were friendly and professional in their approach.
“Some of the polling units were sited in residential spaces and palaces. In the polling units with large registered voters, the voting areas were rowdy implying that polling units with smaller number units are more orderly naturally.
The CSOs further observed that political party agents were present in most of the polling units observed. There were a minimum of four party agents and maximum of six.
They, however, flawed INEC for failing to embark on civic education on the knowledge of voting proce- dures, stressing that “civic education of voters was very poor. Voting cubicles in many of the polling units were not positioned to ensure secrecy of the ballots making it possible for voters to flash their votes to other people.
“There was open negotiation of buying and selling of votes well- coordinated by the polling agents in many of the polling units. There were no complaints from any of them against each other.
“Codes and coupons were used to extract commitments from voters as opposed to the blatant money exchanging hands observed in the Ekiti State governorship election.”
They also applauded INEC “Priority voting was given to the elderly and persons with disabilities in most of the polling units. Situation Room noted that a few of the polling units were located in places with staircases making it inaccessible for people with clutches.”
In its overall assessment of the ongoing election, the CSOs affirmed that “no violence has been recorded and the numbers of people who came out was encouraging.
“We commend the people of Osun for coming out early to cast their votes especially the elderly who waited in queues patiently.
“INEC’s deployment of materials and personnel should also be commended. Vote trading was recorded in most of the areas observed, particularly outside Osogbo,” they said.
Pockets of violence as EFCC arrests three for vote buying
Meanwhile, there was mild violence in some parts of Osun, on Saturday, as the people trooped out to vote.
Though, the exercise was relatively peaceful, policemen arrested some political thugs armed with locally made guns and ammunition, while on patrol at Ward 8, Unit 7 in Ilesha Osun State.
Investigation revealed that, before the security operatives intercepted the ammunition from the political thugs, they had earlier unleashed terror on some innocent citizens of the state in the ward.
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Sources disclosed to our reporter that, a middle-aged man identified as Adeboye, was assaulted by the thugs, who also threatened to strip him naked if he refused to vote for their candidate.
Few of the voters, who traded their votes, told Sunday Tribune, that they were offered between N5,000 and N10, 000, while one of them, who cast her vote at one of the polling units in Osogbo Local Government Area, hinted that voters rejected a sum of N20,000 from a chieftain of a major political during the exercise.
Efforts of the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to checkmate vote buying also paid off during the exercise as three persons were apprehended in connection with alleged vote buying activities.
The arrested vote buyers were nabbed by the EFCC operatives at polling Unit 002, Ward 2, Ababu, Isale Osun area of Osogbo, following intelligence reports. Credible sources at the polling unit gave names of those arrested to include Abidogun Ismail, Adeyemo Bashir and Jimoh Kazeem.
In Olaoluwa Local Government Area of the state, money was seen exchanging hands before voting activities could be carried out by the electorate, who insisted not to cast their votes until they were given money.
In Iwo, where Sunday Tribune also monitored the election, the Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, described vote buying as a great challenge to democracy, saying it could only be checkmated totally if dividends of democracy were sincerely felt among people.
The monarch, however, maintained that the exercise would continue to repeat itself until the issue was addressed because some of those participating in the act do not have hopes of survival.
“People are hungry and you know a hungry man is an angry man. But as time goes on, I believe it will stop,” he pointed out.
In a spirited move to discourage vote buying and selling, officials of the EFCC stormed some polling units in the state to ensure the act was discouraged among voters.
The country homes of Governor Gboyega Oyetola and that of Senator Ademola Adeleke were not spared by the commission.
The EFCC officials numbering six were sighted at Ward 1, Unit 1, Saint Peter’s Anglican School, Iragbiji, where the governor voted and were also seen at PU9, Ward 2, Abogunde/Sagbe polling unit where Adeleke voted in Ede North Local Government Area of the state.
Meanwhile, the Osun State Commissioner for Regional Integration and Special Duty, Lekan Badmus, has described as untrue, speculation that his personal assistant was caught with thump printed ballot papers at Ward 2 of Osogbo Local Government Area.
In a statement in Osogbo, he said, “I wish to emphatically state that myself and every other person working closely with me did not engage in any activities to sabotage the integrity of the election.”
However, governorship candidate of Action Peoples Party (APP), Adeolu Adebayo, accused all his party’s agents at the polling units of compromise.
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