The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday rejected in its
entirety, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s)
declaration of the September 22, 2018 Osun State Governorship election
as inconclusive.
PDP insisted that the process was conclusive and that its candidate,
Senator Ademola Adeleke, who won a total of 254, 698 votes, is in clear
lead and should be immediately declared winner by INEC, having met the
requirements of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP cited,
“Section 179 (2) (a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, (as amended), is clear
and very unambiguous 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.
“The declaration of the election as inconclusive, by INEC is
therefore a sordid robbery of the franchise of the people of Osun State,
who participated in the election.
“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 so as 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 declare our candidate as
the winner.
“It is instructive to state that the PDP will no longer accept
inconclusive elections as subterfuge by the APC attain its dubious
electoral manipulative schemes in our nation.
“The people of Osun state and the entire nation are already aware
that the PDP won this election. They have the authentic figures from the
polling units and know the candidate the voters prefer.
“The people by their votes, have overwhelmingly declared for our
candidate and we are not ready to accept any attempt by anybody to use
any means whatsoever to steal our mandate freely given by the people.
“PDP is for peace, but 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.”
PDP also charged “the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to avoid
the fury of the people by immediately reversing this fraudulent
decision of the Resident Electoral Commissioner and declaring our
candidate the winner of the election. Anything short of this is
definitely not acceptable to the PDP and the people of Osun and it is a
direct recipe for crisis.
“Finally, the PDP cautions INEC and the APC to note that the game is
up. The people of Osun state have decided in favour of the PDP and that
has become a fact that can never be altered.”