By Sikiru Obarayese
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday presented certificate of return to the Governor-Elect, Alhaji Gboyegba Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who won the recently concluded Osun governorship election.
The commission also presented the certificate of return to the Deputy Governor-Elect, Benedict Olugboyega Alabi at the INEC headquarters in Osogbo, the state capital of Osun.
In his address, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun, Olusegun Agbaje congratulated all the stakeholders in the electoral process and the people of the state for conducting themselves in a peaceful manner.
The INEC Boss in Osun while reacting to the outcome of the poll said, “we have so far received a very tremendous applause from a vast majority of the stakeholders.”
Agbaje affirmed that the supplementary election substantially met global best practices as adjudged by the vast majority of stakeholders especially by many party leaders in the state.
The commission admitted that though the poll was not completely smooth but blamed it on the desperate attitude of some politicians and contestants which included among others; “negative utterances that unnecessarily overheated the political environment.
He added that the use of armed thugs to unleash mayhem on the process and peddling of unfounded allegation against INEC to distract her from focusing on its mandate are issues that are capable of undermining the process.
INEC advised the political class to change its “do or die” approach to politics, insisting that “political culture of violence, malpractices, thuggery, vote buying and all other form of election vices must be abandoned by political leaders”.
The Governor-Elect in his acceptance speech thanked the people of Osun for voting him as the next Governor of the state of Osun and also commended electoral stakeholders for their tireless job during the process.
He also condemned the attitude of the opposition party during the poll and thanks the supporters of APC for standing up for the party during the supplementary election.
