Citing votes cancellation, INEC declares Osun gov poll inconclusive

…Holds rerun poll on Thursday over 3498 votes in 7 units
…PDP cries foul, wants INEC to declare Adeleke winner
Citing cancellations of votes, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday declared the keenly contested governorship poll of Osun State on Saturday as inconclusive.

The Presiding Officer of the election and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Prof. Joseph Fuwape, stated this at end of collation at the INEC headquarters in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

At the end of the collation of votes, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, won majority votes of 254,698 votes while Mr. Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) came a close second with 254,345 votes. Both leading candidates had a difference of about 354 votes.

Speaking on the turn of event, Afuwape said, “Unfortunately as the returning officer, it’s not possible to declare anybody as the clear winner of the election on the first ballot.”

He added that the total registered voters in the seven polling units where elections were cancelled is 3,498 votes. Since that figure was higher than the difference between the votes of the leading candidates, a re-run election had to be conducted, the INEC chief explained.

Fuwape then said: “I, Joseph Adeola Fuwape, hereby, declare this election inconclusive.”

INEC’s election guideline made pursuant to Section 153 of the Electoral Act stipulates a rerun if the margin of victory in an election is lower than the number of voters in units where elections are cancelled.

In that case, rerun will hold in areas where elections are cancelled.

The electoral commission later declared Thursday, September 27 as the day of the rerun election.

But the announcement by INEC came shortly after the Adeleke campaign organisation urged the electoral body not to declare the election inconclusive.

In a statement made available by his Director of Publicity of the campaign, Olawale Rasheed, Adeleke, said: “Our attention has been drawn to reports of an alleged plan to declare the Osun governorship election inconclusive as a plot to order a rerun.

“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.

“We note with high sense of responsibility the intense pressure surrounding Osun election from the begining.There are times however when one must stand 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.

“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 rerun; a winner has clearly emerged. To INEC chiefs, time is now to announce Senator Nurudeen Ademola as the winner of this historic election.”

Meanwhile, INEC has scheduled the conclusion of the Osun State governorship election for Thursday.

INEC’s decision was sequel to cancellation of about 3, 498 votes in 7 polling units during the election.

Adeleke had polled the highest votes of 254,498 while Oyetola secured 254, 345 votes with a slim margin of 353 votes in a tough election in which 48 candidates participated.

But the total cancelled votes in seven polling units amount to 3,498, a figure far exceeding the margin with which the PDP candidate defeated his APC opponent, Oyetola.

In Orolu Local Government, Ward 9, Polling unit 001, and with a total registered voters of 393, the election was cancelled after hoodlums snatched ballot boxes and ballot papers.

Also in the same ward, at polling unit 004, with a total of 387 registered voters, ballot boxes were snatched resulting in the cancellation.

INEC also disclosed that a polling unit in Ward 9 in Orolu was also affected with a total registered voters of 167.

In Ife North Local Government Area, Ward 15, unit 010, with voting strength of 502 voters, the election was cancelled due to card reader problems. In Ife South, Ward 16, two polling units were affected with a voting strength of 812 and 502 respectively.

In Osogbo, one unit was affected with a voting strength of 884 registered voters. The collating officer had alleged that the presiding officer of that particular unit walked away with the results, and no further explanations came from that incident.

The INEC Commissioner in-charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Solomon Soyebi, in his address to journalists, said the the difference between the two leading parties is 353 votes.

He said: “The number of voters in the units where the elections were cancelled is 3, 498. To that effect, as a returning officer, it is not possible to declare a party as the fair winner of the election.

“I will like to thank voters for their respect for the rules. We also thank all stakeholders including the political parties, election observers, security agencies and traditional rulers for their unprecedented cooperation before, during and after the election.

“Notwithstanding the successful conduct of the election, the returning officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, has communicated to the commission his inability to make a return in accordance with the laid down rules and INEC guidelines.

“This is as a result of areas where results were cancelled or where there was no voting or there were disruptions.”

He went ahead to mention the affected areas and noted that elections would only hold in those areas with all the 48 political parties involved.

“Based on the results collated by the returning officer, the margin between the two leading candidates is 353 which is less than the total number of registered voters in the affected areas.

“Extant law, guidelines and regulations, provide that if this situation occurs, a return or a declaration may not be made.

In the light of the foregoing, the commission met, and decided that it would remobilise and return to the affected polling units on Thursday, 27th of September, 2018 to rerun the elections, conclude, collate and make a return.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the rerun elections will only take place in the affected polling booths; there are seven of them. So let us be very clear. In Ife North, we have one polling booth, in Ife South we have two, in Orolu we have three and in Osogbo, we have one.”

According to INEC, there will be no campaigns any more, noting that all campaigns ended on September 21 and that the election was simply a continuation and not a separate one.

Soyebi assured that the next governor of Osun State would only be decided through the ballot and no other means.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the the verdict of the INEC that Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State was inconclusive.

The party insisted that the process that led to its candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, scoring 254, 698 votes ahead of the APC Oyetola’s 254,345 was conclusive.

The PDP therefore demanded that Adeleke be immediately declared winner by INEC, having met the requirements of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The party at a press conference addressed in Abuja on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Section 179 (2) (a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), is clear and very unambiguous in spelling out the conditions for returning a candidate to the office of governor of a state.

This section states inter-alia: “A candidate for an election to the office of Governor of a State shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates – (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election;

and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the State”.

He said the declaration of the election as inconclusive by INEC is therefore a sordid robbery of the franchise of the people of Osun State, who participated in the election.

The spokesperson said the party will explore every available constitutional means to seek redress over INEC inglorious reversal of the verdict of the Osun electorate. He added that approaching the court for legal interpretation may not be ruled out.

He said, “The PDP is for peace, but we will not hesitate to use every force available in a democracy to face any attempt to subvert the will of the people or rig us out in this election.

“It is obvious that having failed in their schemes to alter the final results due to the resistance of the people, the APC had to bear pressure on INEC to declare the election inconclusive so as to pave way for the perfection of their manipulative schemes, which the people of Osun State have firmly resisted so far.

“Instead of yielding to the evil machination of the APC, INEC should have summoned the patriotic courage to immune itself and end this needless controversy by returning the PDP and declare our candidate as the winner.

“The people of Osun State and the entire nation are already aware that the PDP won this election. They have the authentic figures from the polling units and know the candidate the voters prefer.

“The people by their votes, have overwhelmingly declared for our candidate and we are not ready to accept any attempt by anybody to use any means whatsoever to steal our mandate freely given by the people”, he added.

The PDP said it will no longer accept inconclusive elections as subterfuge by the APC to attain its dubious electoral manipulative schemes in the country.

Also, the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, has warned INEC to declare PDP winner in Osun’s Saturday general election to avert national crisis.

Secondus, who said that the PDP will not accept anything less than its deserved victory, said the Chairman of INEC, Prof Yakubu Mahmood’, should be held responsible for brewing crisis in the country ahead of 2019 in his greed to satisfy the agenda of his appointees.

He said that after INEC robbed the party of victory in Ekiti State and said they should go to the tribunal, now in Osun State after the party won glaringly, they have concocted another story of inconclusive just to pacify their pay masters.

Secondus warned that if what they did in Ekiti and Osun states elections are rehearsals of what they are planning for 2019, there may be no Nigeria and INEC and APC should be held responsible.

He also drew the attention of the nation’s security apparatus to the possible threat to peace and oneness of this country by the brazing rigging of elections by a supposedly independent electoral umpire.

The PDP boss wondered what President Muhammadu Buhari who left the country to US for United Nations General Assembly on Sunday would be telling democratic community when he cannot conduct simple state governorship election.

“What other evidence do the democratic watchers and security agencies need to establish obvious bias from INEC when the commission’s administrative officer caught destroying result sheets in Ayedade Local Government Area where over a thousand votes belonging to PDP were removed confirmed acting on the instruction of his superior officer?

“What will President Buhari be telling democratic world at the UN when back home he has brutalized all agents of democracy and has been unable to conduct a simple state bye election?

The National Chairman saluted the people of Osun State for their dexterity and vigilance that led to the arrest of the fraudulent INEC official as he called on the international community to watch closely and condemn the electoral commission for their lack of neutrality ahead of 2019 general election.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Civil Society (NCS) said incidents of vote buying during the September 22 Osun governorship election was minimal.

The Coordinator of the group, Mr. Clement Nwanko, said this on Sunday in Osogbo while addressing journalists on its findings and observations during the poll.

Nwanko said announcement by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and law enforcement officials to arrest vote buyer suspects and charge them to court helped significantly in reducing the malpractice.

“As with recent INEC conducted governorship elections, incidents of vote buying reoccurred in the Osun State elections, even if at a reduced and less brazen manner.

“Incidents now seem subtler with the announcement by INEC and law enforcement officials that suspects would be arrested and charged to court, and the actual deployment of security personnel to enforce this, helped significantly,” he said.

The coordinator commended Osun residents and political parties for conducting themselves peacefully during the poll.

He, however, called on INEC to intensify training of its different cadre of staff to enhance their understanding of their election duties and increase their confidence and ability to respond to election challenges.

He said it was observed during the election that some INEC staff and officials were not being sure of their responses to voters’ concerns or voting procedures, which he said, created delay.

Nwanko also called on the electoral body to look into the process of results collation, which he said, was usually done at night when political parties, candidates, observers and other election stakeholders “may have been depleted”.

The NCS recommended that INEC should ensure that its announcement of the introduction of Braille for voting was made operational across the country and that all people living with disabilities were able to vote during elections.

In a related development, the APC has commended the electorate, Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies and relevant stakeholders over the conduct of Saturday’s inconclusive governorship election in the state.

The party said despite some reported irregularities, the election was largely peaceful.

In a press statement on Sunday and signed by the acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Yekini Nabena, the APC said:

“While we continue to improve on our electoral processes, particularly correcting some irregularities witnessed in Saturday’s election, the APC commends the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration which has continually exhibited its commitment to ensuring that elections are more peaceful, transparent, credible and acceptable.

“This is a departure from the situation under past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations where the people’s will, was subverted and elections where manipulated.

We hereby reject the PDP’s baseless calls that the inconclusive Osun governorship election is announced in its favour.

“In the lead up to the rerun election, we call on the Osun electorate, party supporters and members to remain upbeat and focused on the task of consolidating on the APC Change administration in the state by voting for the victory of our candidate, Gboyega Oyetola”.