Segun Atanda/
By now, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the September 22 gubernatorial election in Osun State would have put on his dancing shoes to celebrate victory at the polls.
But the Forces working against the victory dance of Senator Ademola Adeleke, who is known as the Dancing Senator, are many and they appear to be very powerful.
Among them are 14 governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other party stalwarts who were on the ground, working behind the scene in the state.
Early results announced by INEC on Sunday had put Adeleke in the lead.
But the exercise entered into a session of melodrama as INEC, citing some irregularities, revisited and deducted 1000 votes from PDP’s score about four hours after announcing that the race was head to head at Ayedaade LGA, where APC scored 10,861 against PDP’s 10,836, a vote difference of 25.
It was a move that would have made the APC snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, as it put the party ahead of PDP with almost 100 votes.
The move was, however, vehemently contested by PDP leaders, who quickly sent out a statement disclosing that 1000 votes were deducted from the party’s result in the area earlier during collation of result at the INEC office in Osogbo.
The PDP had raised the alarm about impending manipulations after a man who claimed to be an INEC agent was arrested at Ayedaade for allegedly tearing INEC results sheet that was in contention.
The agent who identified himself, with INEC ID Card, as Salawu Mutiu Kolawole said that a superior officer, named as Mrs Aderinoye, called on the phone and directed him to proceed to St Peter’s in Ayedaade to tear the result sheets.
Kolawole said, “An Electoral Officer, Mrs Aderinoye, in Ayedaade council, called me and asked me to go to the council and tear the result sheet.
“Before I could ask her why I had to go and do it, she hung up. I approached another EO, Mr Oladunjoye and told him what my boss said. I went there to tear it but while doing it, two party agents met me there and arrested me.
“They brought me to INEC office after arresting me. I am not a party agent but a staff of INEC. My phone was taken from me by policemen at the gate who ushered me into the premises.”
As the drama was going on, the INEC Official handling the collation in public view received a call, and there was a meltdown. All television stations stopped their live broadcasts and it would take several hours before transmission returned.
During the interlude, NewsmakersNG learnt that the election was going to be declared inconclusive.
So much was going on behind the scene.
The APC army in Osun would not accept defeat. They were led by the party’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
In the brigade are the party’s Deputy Chairman, Abdulazeez Abubakar Yari, the Deputy National Chairman, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos, Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Arakunrin Olwarotimi Akeredolu SAN (Ondo), Owelle Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Simon Bako Lalong (Plateau), Kashim Shettima (Borno), Mohammed Umar Jibrilla (Adamawa), Mohammed Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa), Emma Ibediro, APC National Organizing Secretary; Bankole Oluwajana, the National Vice Chairman (S/W); Tajudeen Bello, the National Financial Secretary, and Babatunde Ogala, the National Legal Adviser.
According to earlier live announcements by INEC, Adeleke polled 16, 693 votes in Ede South, while in Ede North, he got 18, 745 votes. His All Progressives Congress rival, Gboyega Oyetola got 4512 and 7025 in the two councils respectively.
Adeleke also defeated the incumbent governor, Ogbeni Aregbesola, in Ilesha West, one of the Local Government Areas in his hometown, where PDP scored 8,286 against APC’s 7, 251.
The wide gap Adeleke created among the field of 48 governorship candidates gave him the initial jump, making the others to catch up.
After results were announced in 18 local governments, he had 165,596 votes, while the APC candidate got 146, 923 votes, a difference of 18,673 votes.
Senator Iyiola Omisore who cleared Ife Central with a historic vote of 20,494, was in the third position with 71,028 votes.
Results were later declared in the remaining 12 local councils with that of Osogbo coming last, after which INEC declared the election as inconclusive.
According to INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof Joseph Adeola Fuwape, the differences between the two leading parties is just 353.
Fuwape, the Vice Chancellor at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), said in a broadcast today: “…According to election guideline, where the margin of win between two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling units where elections were cancelled, a candidate or a party may not be returned.
“From the analysis of results that we have, the difference between the two leading parties is just 353; and the number of voters in units where elections were cancelled is 3498.
“With that difference, unfortunately as the Returning Officer, it’s not possible to declare any party as the clear winner of this election on the first ballot.”
Going by the results from the 30 Local Government Areas announced by INEC today, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 353 votes.
According to Fuwape, the ruling APC polled 254,345 votes while PDP scored 254,698 votes.
NewsmakersNG, however, learnt that lawyers may see INEC’s action as different strokes for different folks because the same rule was not applied in last month’s Lokoja/Kogi Federal Constituency by-election in Kogi State. In the August by-election, the 19, 960 votes voided was more than the 12, 015 margin recorded by the winner, Mr Haruna Isah of APC who scored 26, 860 votes against PDP’s Engr Bashir Abubakar who had 14, 845 votes. INEC announced the APC candidate as the winner without declaring the election inconclusive.
The election was monitored by not less than 50 International observers, 40, 000 policemen, 14 APC state governors, eight ministers, many senators, party stalwarts and APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu among others.
There were reports of ballot box snatches that led to the cancellation of results in some areas.
Thursday, September 27, is the new date fixed by INEC for the gladiators.
According to INEC, rerun elections would hold in two units of Orolu LGA, a unit of Ife South LGA, one unit of Ife North LGA, and a unit at Osogbo LGA where there were complaints of irregularities.