OSOGBO: Incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party has taken an early lead over Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Osun State governorship election, polling a cumulative 511,067 votes against the APC candidate’s 444,815 across all 30 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state, according to results announced by Returning Officers at various collation centres through Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday.
Salaam Najeem of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) trailed a distant third with 17,180 votes, as collation of results progressed steadily across the state following Saturday’s polls, which were conducted using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
The results, monitored by Vanguard at various LGA collation centres, showed Accord recording its strongest performance in Ede-North, where the party polled 35,427 votes against the APC’s 10,283, according to the returning officer, Jacob Opela. The party also dominated in Osogbo LG, garnering 36,480 votes to the APC’s 30,474, as announced by the collation officer, Professor Ikenna Maximilian, and in Ife-East, where it polled 27,201 against 18,600 votes for the APC, according to Professor Benjamin Omolayo.
The APC, on its part, recorded its widest margin of victory in Irewole LG, where the party polled 29,972 votes against Accord’s 10,934, as declared by the collation officer, Mr Wahji. The APC also won in Boripe, Obokun, Ilesa-East, Atakumosa-West, Isokan, Ola-Oluwa, Ife-South and Olorunda local government areas, with returning officers in each area citing figures ranging from narrow to comfortable margins in favour of the ruling party.
In Ejigbo LG, the ADC recorded its highest vote tally in the election, polling 5,053 votes, its best outing across the 30 LGAs, even as Accord defeated the APC in the area by 18,458 votes to 16,195, according to the collation officer, Professor Akitayo Cecilia.
Other areas where Accord recorded victory included Boluwaduro, Ede-South, Ife-North, Ilesa-West, Ifedayo, Ife-Central, Odo-Otin, Ifelodun, Iwo, Ila, Ayedire, Egbedore and Ayedaade, with returning officers in each of the affected local government areas announcing figures that gave the ruling party a lead over the APC.
The collation of results at the local government level was conducted alongside the electronic transmission of Form EC8A polling unit result sheets to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV), which had recorded uploads of over 87 per cent of the total expected polling unit results as at Saturday night.
With collation across all 30 LGAs now concluded, attention turns to the State Returning Officer, who is expected to formally announce the winner of the governorship election at the INEC headquarters in Osogbo.
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