The controversy surrounding the results of the Osun gubernatorial election conducted on July 16 has reignited the “battle” between governor-elect Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and governorship candidate Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Oyetola had filed a lawsuit challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission and the People’s Democratic Party as well as the election victory of Senator Ademola Adeleke, the newly elected governor of Osun.
Speaking on Rave FM program Frank Talk, in Osogbo on Tuesday, Oyetola, who was represented by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Ismail Omipidan and Adeleke, who was represented by his spokesman, Mallam Rasheed Olawale, were at loggerheads on results used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the PDP candidate the winner of the poll.
Olawale accused the APC of using media trial to twist facts before the tribunal to support their “lies” saying there was no over-voting in 749 polling units as claimed by the ruling party.
He disclosed that due to the allegations, Adeleke, hired a forensic expert who investigated and discovered that only six polling units experienced over-voting.
He said, ” I want to tell our supporters and the people of Osun that there is no cause for alarm. The case is before the tribunal but instead of going to the tribunal to prove their case, the APC has engaged in media trial.
“APC should allow tribunal to do their job. We won the election and we will triumph at the tribunal and by November 27 the governor-elect, ( Senator Ademola Adeleke) will take over the governor’s seat at Abere.”
Disputing Olawale’s claim, Oyetola’s aide, Omipidan, insisted that the result used to declare Adeleke winner had inconsistencies, adding that the number of accredited voters as captured by the Biomodal Voter Accreditation System used by INEC for the poll showed that there was over-voting.
”We approached the tribunal based on these inconsistencies. They said the reports had not been synchronized but the question is, where did INEC get the results used to declare Adeleke the winner. We have a good case at tribunal.
”On Yiaga report, I did not twist any report. Oyetola never lost the election, he lost out in the vote count and that will be explained to the tribunal.”
The INEC had declared Adeleke of the PDP winner of the election, with 403,371 votes while the incumbent governor, Oyetola polled 375,027 votes.
