Osun: Adeleke Didn’t Score Highest Valid Votes— APC’s Oyebamiji Camp

The All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign team in Osun State has alleged that Governor Ademola Adeleke did not secure the highest number of valid votes in the August 15 governorship election.

Oluwole Oke, the Director-General of the APC governorship campaign council, disclosed this in an interview with Arise News on Monday.

He stressed that the party was still conducting a comprehensive review of the election before deciding on its next move.

Oke said the campaign team would not be pressured into congratulating Adeleke, despite the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring the incumbent winner of the poll.

He stressed that the position of President Bola Tinubu, who had congratulated Adeleke after his declaration as winner, was distinct from that of the APC campaign team, which he said was directly involved in the election and was still examining the results.

“And like I’ve told you that what we are doing, even for future, for records, is to conduct a thorough review of the entire process and then form our opinion.

“We won’t be under any sort of pressure to easily reach out to congratulate Senator Ademola Adeleke,” Oke said.

He added: “We do not agree with the declaration of INEC. That’s our position for now. We believe he did not score the highest valid votes.”

Recall that INEC had declared Adeleke, the Accord candidate, winner after he polled 511,067 votes, defeating the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who secured 444,815 votes.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, finished third with 17,180 votes.

Adeleke won in 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji won 11. The incumbent consequently emerged with a margin of 66,252 votes.

Following his declaration, Adeleke had said he expected Oyebamiji to call and congratulate him, describing such a gesture as the “civilised thing to do.”

But the APC campaign council said it would not rush to accept the result or congratulate the governor until it had completed its assessment.

Oke said the party had already commenced an audit of the election and instructed its agents across the state to submit relevant result sheets for verification.

“When you have a project of this nature with the outcome announced by INEC, we will not be in a haste, nor shall we be under pressure without doing the needful,” he said.

“We have embarked on an audit process. We have asked all our party agents to submit copies of Forms EC8A, B, and C to our secretariat for review. We need to inspect the materials.”

The APC Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, also said the party was examining results from all 332 wards in the state.

According to the party, the electoral process does not end with INEC’s declaration, as it could proceed through the Election Petition Tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

The party said it would consult its legal team and consider all available legal options under the Electoral Act if its review uncovered irregularities.

Oke said the review would cover not only the conduct of the election but also issues arising from the pre-election period and their compliance with relevant provisions of the Electoral Act and other laws.

“Until we do that and form our opinion, we won’t be able to go further to say anything on this,” he said.

Beyond the disputed result, the APC campaign DG also criticised the Adeleke administration, alleging poor performance in key sectors including education, healthcare and agricultural support.

“When you look at this in totality, you can see the failures of government glaring in the citizens’ faces,” Oke said.

He urged the public to give the APC campaign team time to complete its audit, saying the party would announce its next course of action after examining the available electoral materials and consulting its lawyers.