Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party took an early lead as the Independent National Electoral Commission began collating results from Saturday’s Osun State governorship election.
Provisional results uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal showed Adeleke ahead of All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Oyebamiji, while African Democratic Congress candidate Najeem Salaam was in third place in several local government areas.
With about 95 per cent of results uploaded to the portal at the time of filing, Adeleke was leading in Osogbo, Oriade, Iwo, Ede South, Ife North, Ife East and Irepodun.
In Osogbo, Adeleke polled 36,480 votes against Oyebamiji’s 30,474. He also won Iwo with 27,085 votes to the APC candidate’s 19,660 and recorded a wider margin in Ede South, where he scored 26,188 votes against 6,219 for Oyebamiji. In Oriade, Adeleke secured 21,343 votes to Oyebamiji’s 14,863.
Several prominent politicians also lost their polling units. Former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who backed Oyebamiji, lost his unit to Adeleke, while former APC National Secretary Iyiola Omisore was also defeated by the governor at his polling unit. Former Governor Rauf Aregbesola lost his unit to the APC.
The election was, however, marred by allegations of vote-buying, technical problems with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and incidents of violence.
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development reported alleged cash inducement in several areas, while Kimpact Development Initiative said its observers recorded suspected cases of vote trading, interference by party agents and security-related incidents.
Voters and officials also reported BVAS malfunctions and delays. Deputy Governor Kola Adewusi said the malfunction at his polling unit slowed voting and prevented some people from casting their ballots.
There were also reports of gunshots, ballot-box snatching and attacks at some polling and collation centres. The APC, ADC and Accord traded accusations over the violence and alleged irregularities, with the ADC calling for the cancellation of results from affected areas.
INEC’s final declaration was still pending as results continued to be collated.
