PDP rejects INEC verdict, wants Adeleke declared winner, INEC fixes re-run for Sept 27
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the declaration of Osun State guber election won by its candidate Ademola Adeleke saying the decision of INEC was clear robbery.
PDP via its tweeter handle, said: #OsunDecides2018.. We reject in its entirety, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) @inecnigeria declaration of the September 22, 2018 Osun State Governorship election as inconclusive.
The process was conclusive and our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, who won a total of 254, 698 votes, is in clear lead and should be immediately declared winner by INEC, having met the requirements of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
#OsunDecides2018 Section 179 (2) (a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, (as amended), is clear and very unambiguous in spelling out the conditions for returning a candidate to the office of governor of a state. This section states inter-ali:, “A candidate for an election to the office of Governor of a State shall be deemed to have been duly elected where…- (a) he has the highest number of votes cast ..and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast….
#osundecides2018 The declaration of the election as inconclusive, by @inecnigeria is therefore a sordid robbery of the franchise of the people of Osun State, who participated in the election. It is obvious that having failed in their schemes to alter the final results due to the resistance of the people, the @OfficialAPCNg had to bear pressure on @inecnigeria to declare the election inconclusive so as to pave way for the perfection of their manipulative schemes”
Prof. Joseph Fuwape, the Returning Officer for the Sept. 22 Osun governorship election, has declared the poll inconclusive.
Fuwape, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), while announcing the results of the election, said that Sen. Ademola Adeleke, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 254,698 votes.
He said Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), scored 254, 345 votes making the PDP winner by 343 votes.
He said the election was declared inconclusive because of cases of ballot boxes snatching that occurred in some polling units during the election.
The returning officer mentioned the affected polling units to include Ife north, one polling unit, Ife south, two polling units, Orolu, three polling units and osogbo, one polling unit.
He said a total of 3498 votes were cancelled in the seven affected polling units
“Based on this fact, I cannot declare anyone the winner of the election,” he said.
Fuwape, however, said that the rerun of the election in the affected polling units would take place on Sept. 27.