Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has been declared the winner of the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress held on Saturday.
Announcing the result very early on Sunday, the Chairman of the governorship primary committee and Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, said Oyetola won the election, having garnered 222,169 votes, against 12,921 votes that his closest challenger, Moshood Adeoti got. He also said another of Oyetola’s challenger, Lasun Yusuf, got 460 votes and placed third.
He said a total of 408,697 voters registered in the primary election of the party, while 247, 207 voters were accredited to vote. The total vote cast and valid votes were 235,550.
Abdulrazaq said Oyetola won in all the 30 local government areas in the state.
In his remarks, Osun APC chairman, Gboyega Famoodun, commended the diligence of the committee, security agencies and others that worked for the success of the exercise.
Sunday PUNCH had reported that Oyetola defeated Adeoti, a former secretary to the state government, at the ward of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, in Saturday’s APC governorship primary.
But the Rasaq Salinsile-led faction of the party to which the minister belongs, rejected the result. The faction claimed that the exercise was fraught with irregularities.
Adeoti, a former chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria before it merged with the APC, is the anointed candidate of Aregbesola for the party’s governorship ticket.
Oyetola, was the chief of staff to Aregbesola when the latter served as governor of the state for eight years.
Also in the race is a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf.
In Aregbesola’s Ifofin Ward 8, Ilesa East Local Government, Adeoti got 146 votes while Oyetola polled 309 votes. Lasun Yusuf also lost in his Ward 5, Ilobu getting 10 votes, as Oyetola polled 323 while Adeoti got 62 votes.
Also, in his Iragbaji Ward 1, Saint Peters Primary School, Iragbiji, Oyetola got 1,612 votes, while Adeoti and Yusuf got no vote.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sunday PUNCH, the Publicity Secretary of Aregbesola’s faction, Abiodun Agboola, noted that the concerns raised by the group at the stakeholders’ meeting held with the party’s Electoral Committee on Friday in Osogbo, the state capital, were not addressed.
Agboola said names of Adeoti’s supporters were removed from the membership register used for the exercise.
