Osun APC faults Adeleke’s claim that PDP won guber poll

Gbenga Olarinoye, Osogbo

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun state, has lashed out at Dr. Deji Adeleke declaring that he was dead wrong to have said his brother, Senator Ademola Adeleke won last September’s governorship election in the state.

Reacting to this claim in a statement issued in Osogbo by the party’s directorate of publicity and signed by its Director, Kunle Oyatomi, the APC, argued that if Sen. Adeleke actually won the election, he would have been governor today, adding that the senator is not governor because he lost that election.

Speaking on behalf of the Adeleke family when he received a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) delegation, the elder Adeleke was quoted to have said that “people know his brother won the election, but was deprived of his victory by the powers that be.”

However, the APC in its reaction observed that “the statement of Dr. Deji Adeleke that his brother, the PDP candidate won the election has no basis in law and in facts and should be disregarded by all well-meaning people who believe in the rule of law and the democratic process.

“That Deji Adeleke and some other people desperately wished for his brother to win could not make him victorious. More importantly, however, is the fact that at no time during the election process did INEC declare Sen. Adeleke winner.

“Initially, the election was stalemated because no clear winner emerged due to serious irregularities and violence in Orolu, Osogbo and Ife federal constituencies which rendered the votes at seven polling units invalid.

“In law, when there is such a stalemate, INEC makes the determination for a re-run election at those polling units, especially so if the total votes in the affected units are more than enough to upturn any advantage of either of the two leading contestants.

“The PDP candidate lost the re-run election and therefore, could not become governor. At that point, the case went to the tribunal for legal determination.

“Although, the election tribunal in its judgment gave the election to the PDP, the superior Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of the country made clear in their determination of the position of the law that not only was INEC right to declare the first election stalemated, the final outcome of the process produced a clear winner, who is Governor Gboyega Oyetola, the APC candidate.

“So, legally and factually, the winner was the APC candidate, albeit by a narrow margin,” the APC state publicity director said.

Furthermore, Oyatomi noted further that “such a re-run election was not peculiar to the state of Osun. Similar situations had occurred in some other states before and after that of the state of Osun.

“Such situations occurred in Imo (2011 and 2015), Anambra (2013), Taraba (2015), Abia (2015), Kogi (2015) and Bayelsa (2015). After Osun in 2018, INEC empowered by the Electoral Act in Section 53 (3) also in March 2019, declared inconclusive guber elections in Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto.

“Winners and losers had emerged after the re-run and the Supreme Court did uphold the outcomes. The case of Osun, therefore, is not strange. For Dr. Deji Adeleke to still be dreaming that his brother won the election, simply shows that he has scant regard for the rule of law and belief in the democratic process.”