New Telegraph

Osun 2022: Oyetola, Adeleke in tight race, win polling units

•Massive voter turnout, relatively peaceful

•Voters display ballot papers to agents of parties

…CSOs applaud INEC, worried over high inducement

 

 

“These are ballot papers, Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices, result sheets, ballot boxes and voter register. They were available for the conduct of the election – a marked improvement over 83 per cent recorded in Ekiti. “CDD-EAC notes that INEC took some steps to address some of the gaps identified in the Ekiti State Governorship Election last month.

 

“INEC has embedded officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the INEC situation room in Osogbo to help address issues around deployment of personnel and movement of voting materials,” she said.

 

Oluranti said that the commission conducted mock accreditation exercise in Osogbo, Borife, Ede, and Egbedore to test the preparedness of its trained staff and the efficiency of the BVAS. She said that the mock accreditation exercise carried out to know the readiness of the 5,306 BVAS machines appeared to have worked.

She added that there was a BVAS machine and compliance in 99 per cent of the polling units visited, with two pollings units in Ife Central and Irepodun reporting absence of BVAS machines at 9:30 a.m. The analyst, however, said that CDD-EAC observers reported cases of political party agents campaigning and canvassing for votes near polling unit in 14 local government areas, which represented 9.6 per cent of the polling units observed.

 

Oluranti said that the acts, which contravened the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, were mostly reported by observers in Ife Central, Odo Otin, Osogbo, Oriade and Irepodun. She added that CDD-EAC observers noticed unremoved campaign posters at some polling units, just as political party agents openly canvassed for votes.

 

rica disclosed that information from its observers in the field revealed that voter intimidation by All Progressives Congress (APC) thugs was carried out in Iragbiji. It also stated that in Ogbaagba town, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) thugs threatened to disrupt the electoral process. Referring to the service of security agencies during Saturday’s voting, Abdu recommended that security personnel conduct themselves with civility.

 

Yiaga also suggested that appropriate sanctions should be imposed for electoral act violation. According to Ene Obi: “The BVAS were deployed according to the number of registered voters. In polling units with over 1,000 voters, INEC kept to its promise to deploy two BVAS machines. The machines functioned credibly well. There were issues with the fingerprint verifications.

However, the facial capture worked very well recording approximately one minute for accreditation and voting in Osogbo and in outside areas, it took longer. “Yiaga Africa received and verified the following critical incident reports: Voter Inducement/Bribery: Yiaga Africa received reports of acts of vote buying perpetrated by agents of the APC and PDP in some polling units.

 

“For instance, PU 009, Akinlalu Commercial Grammar School, Ward 01 in Ife North, the party agents strategically positioned themselves by the voting cubicle to see how voters marked their ballots. “In PU 003 Opposite Olomu Mosque in Osogbo, PDP party agents were seen handing out between N2,000 and N5,000 to induce voters. Also, in Disu Polling Unit 003, ward 7 in Orolu LGA, APC agents were seen distributing N4,000 to voters who voted for the party while PDP party agents were seen distributing N2,000 to induce voters.

 

“There was open negotiation of buying and selling of votes well-coordinated by the polling agents in many of the polling units. There were no complaints from any of them against each other. Codes and coupons were used to extract commitments from voters as opposed to the blatant money exchanging hands observed in the Ekiti State Governorship election.”

 

The groups, however, commended the people of Osun State for coming out early to cast their votes especially the elderly who waited in queues patiently.

 

“INEC’s deployment of materials and personnel should also be commended. Vote trading was recorded in most of the areas observed, particularly outside Osogbo. As voting continues, we call on all stakeholders to maintain the peaceful atmosphere recorded so far.”

Despite the irregularities, official results from the ward collation centres showed that Governor Oyetola and Senator Adeleke are in a tight race. Some of the ward results from Osogbo, Boripe, Ayedire, Ifedayo, Irewole, Ede, Olorunda and Ife indicated that race has been narrowed to APC and PDP. Adeleke wins own polling unit, confident of victory

 

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) governorship candidate in Osun, Senator Ademola Adeleke, won his polling unit at the ongoing election in the state. Adeleke, who cast his vote in ward 2 , unit 9 , Abogunde /Sagba area, in Ede North Local Government, polled 218 votes to defeat the All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Gov. Gboyega Oyetola , who polled 23 votes .

 

The Accord Party had only one vote at Ward 2, unit 9 at Abogunde /Sagba area, in Ede North. Adeleke had earlier cast his vote at 8:39 a.m, at ward 2 polling unit 9 in Ede North, under tight security and confidence of winning the election. Also, Ede North has a total registered voter of 71,750 for the governorship election, with 151 polling units and 11 registration areas, while Ede South has 54, 880 registered voters, with 89 polling units and 10 registration areas.

 

The governorship candidates for the election are Gov. Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC, Sen. Ademola Adeleke, PDP and Oyegoke Omigbodun, Social Democratic Party (SDP).

 

Other key candidates are Dr Akin Ogunbiyi of Accord (A); Mr Yusuf Lasun, Labour Party (LP); Munirudeen Atanda, Action Democratic Party ( ADP) and Busuyi Ayowole, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). I’ll win election, says Oyetola Governor. Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, says he was sure of winning the governorship election, as he cast his vote at Unit 2, Ward 1, LA Primary School, Popo, Iragbiji in Boripe Local Government area.

 

Oyetola, who arrived at the polling unit in company of his wife, Kafayat, cast his vote at exactly 10.55 a.m, three minutes after his wife voted. Speaking with journalists after exercising his franchise, Oyetola said he was happy with the turn out of voters, especially at his polling unit.

 

Oyetola said the election process was transparent, adding that this encouraged voters to come out en-masse to vote. The governor said he was happy seeing large turnout of voters, adding that by God’s grace, he would be victorious at the end of the day’s voting.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that accreditation and voting at the governor’s polling unit started at exactly 8:30 a.m with the INEC Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) working perfectly well.

 

There was also large turnout of voters at the polling unit, which had 1,457 registered voters. Oyetola won the election at his polling unit at Unit 2, Ward 1, LA Primary School Popo, Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area of Osun, polling 545 votes out of a total 622 valid votes cast. INEC ad hoc official that announced the results, Presiding Officer, Valentine

 

Awoegbe, gave the breakdown of the results as : Accord party-one vote, AATone vote, ADP- five votes and YPP- one vote. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came a distant second with 69 votes while eight votes were voided. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that voting at the polling unit, that had 1,457 registered voters, ended at about 3:23 p.m when the last person in the queue cast her vote.

 

Sorting of the ballots, however, commenced at 3:37 p.m in the presence of political party agents and voters waiting around to hear the outcome of the vote count. The counting later started by 4:25 p.m. with the final results announced by 4:55 p.m.

 

Oyetola and his wife, Kafayat, had earlier been to the polling unit to cast their votes, with the governor commending the turnout of the electorate at the polling unit.

 

Oyetola, however, admonished INEC to provide more Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for the polling centre, because of the number of registered voters at the area, saying it would make the voting process faster. 97% of INEC workers arrived polling units 8:30 a.m. – CDD

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) says data from its Election Analysis Centre (EAC) showed that 97 per cent of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) polling staff arrived polling units in Osun by 8:30 a.m. Dr Ayomola Oluranti, an analyst at CDD-EAC and a Senior Lecturer at Babcock University, Ogun State, made the disclosure in Abuja in centre’s first interim statement on the Osun Governorship Election on Staturday.

 

According to Oluranti, CDD-EAC deployed 300 trained and accredited observers to collect data on key aspects of voting and related processes.

 

She said that the objective was to determine through evidence-based analysis, the credibility of the election in meeting and satisfying canons of electoral integrity under Nigerian laws and international codes and standards.

 

Oluranti said that the data also showed that 79 per cent of INEC poll officers addressed voters before the 8:30 a.m. the official time for poll opening. She said the data also indicated that there were critical election materials in at least 92 per cent of polling units.

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