A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olabode George, has faulted the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the Osun governorship election inconclusive.
Already, INEC had announced Thursday, September 27 as the date for the rescheduled exercise.
According to the commission, the rerun will be conducted in some of the units in which votes were cancelled for alleged irregularities.
INEC had on Sunday announced the final results of the governorship election, with candidate of PDP leading with total votes of 254,698 for the PDP while APC polled 254,345 to come second in the exercise.
In a statement on Monday entitled, “The People of Osun have spoken”, George stated that said it was clear and unambiguous that the people of Osun voted for the PDP candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
He noted that Adeleke “fulfilled all the necessary electoral requirements for his well deserved victory. There is no extant electoral stipulation for a so-called rerun farcical dramatization.”
“It is rather disturbing for the INEC to now concoct an unnecessary stalemate. Cancelled votes remain cancelled, removed from the total votes.
“Where then did they manufacture a so-called inconclusive election? It has no bearing with our electoral law. It is a blatant fraud which may trigger a dangerous recourse for our democracy”.
He urged INEC to “as a matter of justice, fairness and the codification of the rule of law and constitutional primacy”, declare Adeleke as the rightful winner.
“The will of the people must prevail. We must not conflagrate this nation.
“The dark experience of 1963 that reverberated across the South West and that eventually consumed our nation began with this similar attempt to thwart the will of the people.
“This nation must never go through this road again. The whole world is watching. We must not set this country ablaze. The agents of doom and destruction must never prevail,” he said.