The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship campaign in Osun State has rejected the result of the August 15 governorship election, insisting that Governor Ademola Adeleke did not secure the highest number of valid votes cast in the poll.
The Director-General of the APC governorship campaign, Oluwole Oke, stated this during an interview with Arise News on Monday while explaining why the party had yet to congratulate Adeleke on his re-election.
Oke said the party disagreed with the declaration made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and had commenced a review of election materials before deciding its next course of action.
He added, “We do not agree with the declaration of INEC. That’s our position for now. We believe he did not score the highest valid votes.”
According to him, the APC campaign organisation would not be pressured into accepting the outcome of the election until it completed a thorough assessment of the process.
“And like I’ve told you that what we are doing, even for future, for records, is to conduct a thorough review of the entire process and then form our opinion.
“We won’t be under any sort of pressure to easily reach out to congratulate Senator Ademola Adeleke,” Oke said.
INEC had declared Adeleke, the Accord candidate, winner of the election after he polled 511,067 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who secured 444,815 votes. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, finished a distant third with 17,180 votes.
The election result showed Adeleke winning in 19 local government areas, while Oyebamiji secured victory in 11 councils, giving the incumbent a margin of 66,252 votes.
Although President Bola Tinubu congratulated Adeleke after the declaration of the result, Oke said the position of the APC campaign team remained different as it was focused on examining events surrounding the election.
He said the party had already begun an audit of the poll and directed its agents across the state to submit relevant election documents for scrutiny.
“We have embarked on an audit process. We have asked all our party agents to submit copies of Forms EC8A, B, and C to our secretariat for review. We need to inspect the materials,” Oke said.
The APC campaign chief said the review would cover both the conduct of the election and issues arising before the poll, including compliance with the Electoral Act and other applicable laws.
He further indicated that the party could explore legal options if its findings revealed grounds for further action.
According to the APC, the electoral process extends beyond the announcement of results and may continue through the election tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court where necessary.
“Until we do that and form our opinion, we won’t be able to go further to say anything on this,” Oke said.
The party also urged supporters and members of the public to allow it complete its assessment of the election before announcing its next move.
