Nigeria’s main opposition party won the gubernatorial election in the southwestern state of Osun, the electoral commission said on Sunday, in a major setback against President Muhammadu Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress.
Osun is among eight of Nigeria’s 36 states where gubernatorial elections are not held at the same time as the rest of the country due to legal challenges to previous results.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) won 403,371 votes to unseat current APC governor Gboyega Oyetola, who won 375,027 on Saturday’s ballot.
“I declare… that PDP’s Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, having met the requirements of the law, is hereby re-elected,” INEC scrutineer Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe said in Osogbo, the state capital.
Adeleke, 62, won 17 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyetola won 13.
The announcement was greeted with spontaneous celebrations in the streets of the state capital as PPD supporters began singing and dancing. Motorists honked their horns on the highways.
Election observers said the polls, which opened early with a large turnout, were peaceful, but added that cases of vote buying were rampant.
political test
Of the 15 parties that competed for the seat, only four candidates were the main candidates. They were Oyetola from the APC who was seeking a second term, Adeleke from the PDP, Akin Ogunbiyi from the Agreement Party and Yusuf Lasun from the Labor Party.
However, it was a close race between old political foes Oyetola and Adeleke, who lost by less than 500 votes after a runoff four years ago.
Described locally as a “dancing senator” due to his penchant for partying, Adeleke is the uncle of celebrated Nigerian superstar singer Davido, who joined him on the campaign trail.
The PPD standard-bearer comes from a wealthy political family. His father was a senator in the 1980s, while his late brother Isiaka was state governor from 1992 to 1993.
Another brother, Deji, is a billionaire oil and shipping magnate and Davido’s father.
Davido was in the state to mobilize the youth, including his supporters and fans, for his uncle.
The vote was seen as a battleground for Nigeria’s main parties to test support for their presidential candidates ahead of elections in February 2023 when Buhari steps down after eight years in office.
The APC chose former state governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu as its presidential candidate.
The loss of the APC at Osun is a severe blow to Tinubu’s regional influence.
Tinubu, a Muslim from the Southwest, faces a tough challenge from PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, a Muslim from the North.
Another favorite is Peter Obi of the Labor Party, who has enjoyed growing support among the younger generation in a bid to break the dominance of the APC and PDP.
Last month, the APC won a gubernatorial vote in nearby Ekiti state with a landslide victory.
This article is republished from – Voa News – Read the – original article.
