Declare Adeleke Osun poll winner, PDP tells INEC
Posted by Admin | 6 years ago | 2,290 times
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare its Osun standard-bearer Senator Ademola Adeleke as the winner of last Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
At a press conference, the party insisted the process was conclusive, saying its candidate met the requirements of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, who addressed the press, said Section 179 (2) (a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, (as amended), is clear in spelling out the conditions for returning a candidate to the office of governor of a state.
“This section states inter-alia, ‘a candidate for an election to the office of governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates – (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the state’,” he quoted.
Describing the verdict as a robbery of the people’s franchise, the PDP said: “It is obvious that having failed in their schemes to alter the final results, due to the resistance of the people, the APC had to bear pressure on INEC to declare the election inconclusive, to pave way for the perfection of their manipulative schemes, which the people of Osun State have firmly resisted so far.
“Instead of yielding to the evil machination of the APC, INEC should have summoned the patriotic courage to immune itself and end this needless controversy by returning the PDP and declaring our candidate as the winner.
“It is instructive to state that the PDP will no longer accept inconclusive elections as subterfuge by the APC to attain its dubious electoral manipulative schemes in our nation.”
The PDP gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) a rude shock as the result of Saturday’s Osun State governorship election was announced.
The opposition party won the election but by a margin, which according to Returning Officer Prof. Joseph Adeola Fuwape, restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from declaring its candidate, Ademola Adeleke, outright winner.
While APC’s Gboyega Oyetola scored 254,345 votes, his counterpart, popularly known as the ‘dancing senator’, polled 254,698.
“According to the election guideline, where the margin of win between the two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling units where elections were cancelled, a candidate may not be returned.
“From the analysis of the result we have, the difference between the two leading parties is just 353.
And the number of voters in the units where elections were cancelled is 3,498.
To that effect, unfortunately, as a returning officer, it’s not possible to declare any party as the clear winner of this election,” Fuwape said.
The polling units (seven altogether) where results were cancelled are: Ife North, one; Ife South, two; Oreolu, three; Osogbo, one.
The electoral body has since fixed Thursday, September 27, for a re-run in the affected units.
Mr. Ologbondiyan, threatened that although “PDP is for peace, we will not hesitate to use every force available in a democracy to face any attempt to subvert the will of the people or rig us out in this election.”
To avoid “the fury of the people,” the PDP charged INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu to “immediately reverse this fraudulent decision and declare our candidate the winner.
Source: Guardian
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