The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gboyega Oyetola, the winner of the 2018 Osun governorship election.
Mr Oyetola was returned as governor-elect on Thursday at the end of a supplementary election which held in seven polling units across four local governments.
The APC candidate won six of the seven units amidst allegations of harassment and other forms malpractice.
At the end of the tally of votes, the APC candidate scored a total of 255,505 votes while the PDP candidate scored a total of 255,023 votes.
Although Mr Adeleke had led his APC rival with 353 votes at the end of the first round of ballots last Saturday, the table turned the other way after the supplementary votes on Thursday with the APC candidate overtaking and beating the PDP candidate with a total margin of 482 votes.
Besides leading in the number of votes cast, the APC also led in the number of local governments won, winning a total of 16 local governments as against 11 won by the PDP. The SDP won two while the ADP won one.
INEC scheduled the rerun after declaring the Saturday election inconclusive, saying the margin of votes was less than the number of cancelled votes in seven polling units.
Three of the units were located in Orolu local government, two in Ife South, one in Ife North and another one in Osogbo local government. INEC cancelled the elections in the polling units due to irregularities ranging from ballot box snatching, manual accreditation and missing result sheets.
However, Thursday’s supplementary election which gave the edge to Mr Oyetola was marred by irregularities and intimidation perpetrated by political thugs despite the huge deployment of security operatives at the polling units.
Despite the irregularities reported by journalists and observers, INEC officials at the collation centre all said the election went on smoothly.
The INEC returning officer for the governorship election, Joseph Fuwape, who declared the final result, thus declared Mr Oyetola winner of the election.
The returning officer, Adeola Afuwape, announced Mr Oyetola’s victory Friday morning.
“That Gboyega Oyetola, having satisfied the requirement of the law and won the highest number of votes is hereby declared winner and returned elected,” he said.
