Osun State will go to polls on Saturday to elect a governor that will steer the affairs of the state for the next four years. Fifteen political parties are fielding candidates to vie for the position. But, only five of them are in serious contention for the seat. Among the leading contenders are the incumbent, Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP, Dr Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party, former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf of the Labour Party (LP) and Goke Omigbodun of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
But, two of the candidates, Governor Oyetola and Senator Adeleke appear to be the front runners. The old foes are set for a rematch; they faced each other as the two main contenders in the last governorship election in 2018 and the former triumphed after supplementary elections in some polling units where the contest did not hold on the D-day. The electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive, despite the fact that Adeleke polled 254,698 votes against Oyetola’s 254,345 votes because the number of votes cancelled in units where violence was recorded, (3,498) was higher than the gap of 353 votes that separated the PDP candidate from the APC candidate.
The electoral commission had to organise supplementary elections in the polling units where violence prevented it from holding it on schedule. At the end of the day, Oyetola emerged the winner, after he polled 255,505 votes against Adeleke’s 255,023. The then-candidate of the SDP, Senator Iyiola Omisore who came third with 128,049 votes played a decisive role in Oyetola’s victory because the supplementary elections took place at polling units within areas where he had the upper hand. Thus, the APC wooed him and he appealed to his supporters to back the ruling party in the supplementary poll.
Credit : THE NATIONS.
