By Aliyu Oyewole
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has refused to immediately congratulate Governor Ademola Adeleke on his re-election, insisting that the party is still reviewing the outcome of the August 15 governorship election.
The Director-General of the APC Governorship Campaign Committee, Oluwole Oke, disclosed this on Monday while speaking on Prime Time, a programme on Arise Television.
Oke said the party believes that Adeleke did not secure the highest number of valid votes in the election and would not be pressured into accepting the result before completing its review of the electoral process.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Adeleke the winner of the election.
The state Returning Officer, Joshua Ogunwole, announced that Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to defeat his closest challenger, the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who secured 444,815 votes.
The candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Najeem Salaam, came a distant third with 17,180 votes.
Adeleke won in 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji secured victory in 11 LGAs.
Following the declaration, President Bola Tinubu congratulated Adeleke, describing his re-election as a “fitting assurance” that democracy would continue to flourish under his administration.
However, Oke said the president’s decision to congratulate Adeleke should not be interpreted as the position of the Osun APC.
“Mr. President, His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, is the father of the nation. And as a democrat, based on the announcement of INEC, he issued a statement credited to him. He’s a father, he’s a leader, but we’re on the spot,” Oke said.
He explained that the APC campaign committee was conducting a comprehensive review of the election, stressing that the party would form its position after examining the available records.
“We’re on the ground and politics is local. And like I’ve told you, what we are doing, even for future records, is to conduct a total review of the entire process and then form an opinion,” he said.
Oke added that the APC would not rush to congratulate Adeleke because of its reservations about the declared results.
“We won’t be under any sort of pressure to easily reach out to congratulate Senator Ademola Adeleke because we believe he did not score the highest valid votes,” he said.
According to him, the party is currently studying and inspecting the election records and would announce its official position after concluding its investigation.
“We’re studying the records. We’re inspecting the records. And very soon, we would make our position known to the members of the public,” Oke said.
The development leaves the Osun APC yet to publicly accept the election outcome, despite INEC’s declaration of Adeleke as the winner and the president’s congratulatory message to the governor.
