Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has won a fresh four-year term to lead the South-West state after defeating his closest rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Returning Officer for the Osun governorship election, Joshua Ogunwole, who announced the results at the INEC Collation Centre in Osogbo early Sunday, said Governor Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to emerge as the winner of the keenly contested exercise.
Oyebamiji of the APC came second with a total vote count of 444,815. Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) was a distant third, having gotten 17,180 votes.
“For that, Adeleke Ademola Jackson of the Accord Party, having satisfied the requirement of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is hereby returned elected,” he said on Sunday morning at the collation centre in Osogbo.
According to Ogunwole, 1,005,800 votes were cast in the election, which was held across the 30 local government areas of Osun State, while 985,079 valid votes were recorded. The Returning Officer said 1,010,684 voters were accredited for the poll.
Adeleke’s victory was particularly significant as he contested the election on the platform of the Accord Party, having left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under which he won his first term, in December.
“We opted for the Accord Party because its mission of welfarism aligns with our passionate focus on citizens’ and workers’ welfare. Since I joined, I have been fascinated by the philosophy of this great party,” the governor said while announcing his defection from the PDP, one of Nigeria’s main opposition parties. “The primary essence of a government is the welfare and well-being of the people.”