OSUN: PDP’s Adeleke heads to court, but APC unimpressed

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, said he will retrieve his mandate at the election tribunal from Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP candidate stated this while speaking with journalists just before announcement of the final results of the run-off elections by Returning Officer, Professor Joseph Fuwape, who declared Oyetola winner of the keenly contested election.

The state chapter of the APC has however alleged that the PDP is crying foul because it was not able to carry out its extensive rigging plot.

Adeleke, who spoke through his brother, Dele Adeleke, said he would consult with the leadership of his party and the tribunal will be the next stop for him.

He said: “It will be foolish to allow this 419 result to stand. The party will meet and I believe that the tribunal is the next step to take.

“Adeleke’s mandate can’t be stolen, it will be retrieved. The wish of the people will stand at the end.”

The APC however alleged that the PDP is crying foul because it was not able to carry out its extensive rigging plot.

The party stated this in a statement issued by its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy in Osun State, Mr Kunle Oyatomi, adding that the opposition party made an elaborate arrangement to rig the poll but were prevented from carrying out the act.

Oyatomi said: “Osun people have spoken. The PDP was unable to manipulate the result this time around, so they are crying foul. We have always known and have made ourselves clear before the election that the PDP had made elaborate arrangements to rig the election through the manipulation of the card readers and it was this process that made them get the votes allocated to them in the first ballot.

“Nobody expected the PDP to even come second. Most people in Osun have the belief that it would be a straight fight between the APC and SDP. But as God would have it, Osun was saved from the vultures.

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“We will like the Osun people to understand that the runoff votes went the way it did because the PDP was unable to manipulate the card readers this time around and fortunately the police thwarted their plot of vote-buying and trying to use the PVCs of unsuspecting voters. That was why some of their leaders were arrested. So the PDP should look for other excuses.

“They attempted to win by fraud; they failed in the first round and eventually lost the rerun election.”

 

 

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