By David Akinadewo-Adekahunsi
The incumbent Osun State Governor and Accord Party candidate, Ademola Adeleke, has taken an early lead over his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as results from Saturday’s governorship election continue to trickle into the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
The latest figures available from the IReV aggregation show that results from 1,485 of the 3,763 polling units in the state had been uploaded, representing 39.5 per cent of the total results expected.
Of the uploaded results, 837 polling-unit results had been aggregated at the time of the latest update, with 190,746 votes already counted.
Adeleke was leading with 105,083 votes, representing 55.1 per cent of the votes so far aggregated, while Oyebamiji had polled 73,007 votes, representing 38.3 per cent.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, was in a distant third position with 3,309 votes, representing 1.7 per cent.
Adefemi Adesuyi of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) had 1,876 votes, while Olanrewaju Farinloye of the Action Alliance (AA) had 1,866 votes. Adesina Adeyemi-Doro of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had 1,591 votes.
The figures remain provisional, as more polling-unit result sheets are being uploaded and aggregated on the IReV portal.
The official winner will only emerge after INEC completes the statutory collation process and the Returning Officer makes a formal declaration.
The current IReV figures show Adeleke ahead of Oyebamiji by 32,076 votes, although a significant proportion of polling-unit results is still outstanding.
Results have so far been aggregated from 16 local government areas, with Adeleke maintaining leads in most of the councils reporting.
In Ife East, Adeleke had secured 20,311 votes out of 29,271 votes counted, representing 69.4 per cent, while Oyebamiji had 7,888 votes, or 26.9 per cent. The ADC candidate had 440 votes.
In Ife Central, Adeleke was also ahead with 10,988 votes out of 23,582 counted, representing 46.6 per cent. Oyebamiji had 8,426 votes, or 35.7 per cent, while Salaam polled 567 votes.
Adeleke recorded another lead in Odo-Otin, where he had 7,452 votes, representing 51.7 per cent of the 14,409 votes counted. Oyebamiji had 5,895 votes, or 40.9 per cent, while the ZLP candidate secured 307 votes.
The incumbent governor also maintained a lead in other reporting local government areas, including Ede South, Ede North, Ilesa West, Ila, Irepodun, Ayedaade, Ifedayo, Egbedore and Ejigbo.
However, Oyebamiji has recorded leads in some of the local government areas that have reported results. In Irewole, for instance, the APC candidate had 7,448 votes against Adeleke’s 2,845, while in Ola-Oluwa, Oyebamiji had 1,854 votes compared with Adeleke’s 1,789.
The APC candidate also led in Ayedire, where he had 1,936 votes against Adeleke’s 1,850 votes.
Earlier in the day, Adeleke expressed confidence that he would secure re-election, while Oyebamiji also said he was confident of victory after casting his vote.
The voting process, which was conducted across the state’s 3,763 polling units, was followed by sorting, counting and the recording of results at individual polling units before transmission of result sheets to the IReV portal.
The European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria Election Observation Hub (EU-SDGN EOH), in its preliminary election-day statement, described voter turnout as impressive and the process as largely peaceful and orderly, but raised concerns over electoral offences and irregularities.
As the results continue to arrive on IReV, attention is now shifting from polling units to the formal collation process, where party agents and observers are expected to scrutinise the results before the final declaration.
INEC has urged stakeholders to rely on official channels and await the completion of the statutory collation process.
