Osun gov rerun poll holds today as Omisore backs APC
…Only 2594 eligible to vote today, PDP alerts Nigerians, cautions INEC
Few hours after declaring that the interest the people of Osun State will determine his support in today’s supplementary voting, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Senator Iyiola Omisore, has finally decided to give his support to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Omisore had in the last 72 hours been under pressure from both the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC seeking his support.
Early on Wednesday, Omisore in a statement by his media aide, Jide Fakorede, said that what is paramount to him is good governance and the practice of true democracy in Osun State.
In the statement, Omisore said: “Osun State has always been a stellar example of democracy where the people have consistently and freely expressed their franchise to determine who governs them.
This should remain so. Osun people have shown that it is not business as usual. It is a positive deviation from what was hitherto the norm.
“I am telling my people that they should go with any political party that believes in what we in the SDP stand for; good governance, social justice and accountability.
I have already detailed how we planned to restore Osun to the path of good governance through the five thematic pillars in the manifesto I shared during the electioneering. I will not negotiate for personal gains and abandon my people.”
But against his promise not to negotiate for personal gains, Omisore later in the day allegedly succumbed to the irresistible offers by the APC whose leadership paid him personal visit in his Ife country home on Tuesday.
When contacted to confirm the latest development, Jide Fakorede, his media aide, said “event has overtaken the press statement issued earlier in the day. It is true that Otunba Omisore has promised his support for the APC”.
Fakorede, however, denied Omisore’s succumbing to any financial inducement from the party.
Meanwhile, the PDP has alerted members of the party, the opposition parties as well as other Nigerians that only 2594 voters are eligible to participate in today’s supplementary voting to conclude last Saturday’s Osun State governorship poll declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This figure, the party insisted, is the number of voters that have collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) as against the 3498 total number of registered voters in the affected seven polling units in which elections holds today.
The PDP chairman in Osun State, Hon. Soji Adagunodo, in a statement said: “We are putting the general public on notice as to the facts about the total number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) allocated as at the date when collection of PVCs ended”.
Threatening to hold INEC responsible should there be any infraction in the figures, he said “we shall therefore be holding INEC accountable for any deviation from these facts in the supplementary elections holding on Thursday”.
The party as well made allegations of certain injustices done the PDP by INEC in favour of the APC in the results of last Saturday’s election.
Adagunodo said 2000 votes were added to APC votes in Osogbo, 1387 votes added to APC in Olorunda local government and 1000 votes deducted from PDP votes in Ayedaade, totalling 4387 votes robbed from PDP.
The party claimed that if the figure, 4387 is added to its 353 votes’ margin in Saturday’s poll, it would have won the election with 4,700 votes margin.
