OSUN RERUN INESSENTIAL – PPC, RPN GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANTS TELL INEC
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The candidate of the Providence People’s Congress,PPC, Prof Ife Adewumi, and Mrs. Mercy Ayodele, candidate of the Restoration Party of Nigeria,RPN, have told the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the rerun election currently holding in seven polling units in Osun is needless.
Adewumi and Ayodele who said this on Wednesday in separate interviews with journalists in Osogbo, stated that, they believed INEC should announce Senator Adeleke as the winner of the Osun State governorship election held on Saturday and return him as the governor-elect.
The two candidates were also part of the 48 candidates that contested the poll said the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ademola Adeleke, had met the necessities of the law by notching the highest number of votes and by scoring at least 25 per cent of votes cast in two thirds of the local government areas in the state.
As a result of these, Adewumi, who is a former Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities at the ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile Ife, noted there was no reason to call for a rerun poll in the areas where the election had been held and the results were cancelled for one loophole or another.
He stated that INEC appeared to have conspire with the ruling All Progressives Congress to undermine the will of the majority of the people of the state.
He said, “A clear winner is evident in this election and the candidate is Senator Ademola Adeleke. Having beaten his nearest opponent with 353 votes and polled the requisite quota of votes as provided, I do not see the reason for a rerun or why he is not declared the winner?
“The local government areas where the rerun is ordered had their votes cancelled not because there wasn’t an election held there. There was voting in those local governments. Their results were cancelled for reasons. This is legally different from where there is no election or voting. The votes are cancelled and remain cancelled. They cannot be added, deducted or recontested. There can be no other election held there again for this purpose.
“There is, therefore, no legal basis for ordering a rerun. There is no such allowance provided by or known to the law.
“But there comes a time in this country when we have to learn to do the right thing. It is so sad and unfortunate that we will see light and continue to look for darkness. In any case, how does a Returning Officer have the power and authority to declare a rerun?
“There is nothing in the INEC Guidelines or in the Electoral Act that can give validity to this illegality. But the truth remains the truth, whether spoken, contested or hushed.”
The candidate of the Restoration Party, who is one of the two female candidates in the Saturday election said the APC candidate, AlhajiGboyegaOyetola, would have been declared the winner if he had just won by a single vote.
Ayodele said, “The INEC is just a puppet in the hand of the Federal Government. Immediately the REC started receiving calls during the declaration, I knew something strange was going to happen.
“The whole world has the result, we only cross-checked and it was okay except for Ayedaade. If APC had led by just one vote there would have been no rerun. The voice of the people must be respected. Their voice is supreme.”
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