The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate in the Saturday’s Osun gubernatorial election, Sen. Ademola Adeleke, has warned against tampering with results of the poll.
Adeleke said INEC should respect the will of the people as the All Progressives Congress is waiting for election result from Osogbo, the most populous local government area of Osun State to see if it will be able to flip what now seemed an unassailable victory for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
He spoke as collated results collated from 29 local government areas of the state showed that the PDP is leading APC in the election with over 12,000 votes, having scored about 236,784 votes, while the APC has scored about 224,488 votes.
Premium Times reports that while the PDP leads in total votes cast so far in the 29 local governments, in terms of number of local governments, the APC has the lead.
According to the online newspaper, while APC has so far won in 15 local governments, PDP won in 11 local governments.
The ADP has won in one local government (Iwo) while the SDP has won in two local governments (Ife East and Ife Central).
Though early results indicated that the APC is leading from results collated in Osogbo, the party will however have to garner over 12,000 votes to stop PDP’s Ademola Adeleke from what seem a sure match to Osun State Government’s House.
There is anxiety among supporters of PDP that the result from Osogbo may be manipulated in favour of APC
But warning against such manipulations, Adeleke, in a statement signed by Olawale Rasheed, the Director of Media and Publicity of his Campaign Organisation said: “The Ademola Adeleke Campaign Organisation has warned against the manipulation of the results of the governorship polls, affirming that the will of the people must be respected.
“As results are been collated across the state, we demand utmost fair play and transparency from the electoral body.
“We are watching and monitoring closely. Under no circumstance should the collation process be manipulated.
“Our agents and leaders are on their toes armed with relevant results and forms.
“The will of the people must be respected. We task INEC and security agencies to obey the directive of President Muhammad Buhari who had ordered that the Osun electoral process should never be manipulated by federal or any related agencies.
“We call on local and international observers to take note of the ongoing process and assist the people of Osun state to realise the supremacy of their electoral will.
“Our people should also be ever vigilant to protect their votes and their aspirations for better life.”