The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the outcome of the Osun State governorship election, challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Governor Ademola Adeleke as the winner.
Rather than immediately announce whether it will challenge the result in court, the party says it is conducting a detailed review of the election results, electoral documents and events surrounding the poll.
The APC Osun State Governorship Campaign Director-General, Oluwole Oke, disclosed this during an interview on Arise News, saying the party believes Adeleke did not secure the highest number of valid votes.
“We do not agree with the declaration of INEC. That’s our position for now. We believe he did not score the highest valid votes,” Oke said.
According to Oke, the party has already begun auditing the election, with its agents directed to submit copies of relevant electoral documents to the APC secretariat for examination.
The documents include Forms EC8A, EC8B and EC8C, which contain results from polling units and subsequent stages of the collation process.
Oke said the party wants to examine the available records carefully before deciding what action to take.
“When you have a project of this nature with the outcome announced by INEC, we will not be in a haste, nor shall we be under pressure without doing the needful,” he said.
“The needful that we need to do is to evaluate the process, get all the records, review the process, and then form an opinion.”
The APC campaign DG said the party’s assessment would not be limited to the final figures announced by INEC.
According to him, the review will also cover events that occurred before and during the election, including whether they complied with the Electoral Act and other applicable laws.
“There are a lot of issues before us. There are a lot of issues for determination, even on a pre-election basis,” he said.
He added that the party would wait until the review was completed before making further statements.
“Until we do that and form our opinion, we won’t be able to go further to say anything on this.”
The position leaves open the possibility that the APC could challenge the election result through the appropriate legal process, although Oke did not confirm that the party had decided to approach the election tribunal.
Oke also rejected suggestions that internal disagreements within the APC were responsible for the party’s performance in the election.
He argued that disagreements exist within political parties generally and cited the Accord Party as an example.
“If you are talking about internal divisions, even the Accord Party itself is divided,” Oke said.
He pointed to the Accord Party chairman’s public endorsement of the APC candidate, arguing that disagreements within a political organisation do not necessarily prevent members from supporting a candidate during an election.
Oke also defended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) decision to freeze an account belonging to the Osun State Government shortly before the election.
He argued that the anti-graft agency, as a lawful government institution, must have had reasons for taking the action.
“When you have a constitutional body, a lawful agency of government like the EFCC performing their lawful duty, I don’t see anything wrong in that,” he said.
However, Oke commended President Bola Tinubu for directing that the state government’s accounts be unfrozen.
He maintained that the controversy surrounding the account freeze was separate from the APC’s assessment of the governorship election and said he would not comment further without having all the relevant facts.
The APC official also dismissed claims that the party’s control of the Federal Government gave its candidate an unfair advantage during the election.
He argued that political realities at the state level could not simply be determined by which party controls the government at the centre.
“When people allude to the fact that our party is the ruling party and talk about federal might, it doesn’t work like that. Politics is local,” he said.
According to Oke, the involvement of APC governors and other senior party figures in the campaign was simply part of their support for the party’s candidate.
Oke also used the opportunity to criticise the Adeleke administration, particularly its record in education, healthcare and support for farmers.
He argued that the government’s performance would form part of the broader political assessment of the election.
“When you look at this in totality, you can see the failures of government glaring in the citizens’ faces,” he said.
Despite the party’s rejection of the result, Oke urged the public to wait for the completion of the APC’s review before drawing conclusions about its next move.
The party says it will examine the electoral documents and other available evidence before announcing its final position.
The development follows INEC’s declaration of Adeleke as the winner of the Osun governorship election. If the APC decides to pursue a legal challenge after completing its review, the dispute could move from the political arena to the election tribunal, potentially extending the contest beyond election day.
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