Osun: Old Foes Oyetola, Adeleke Set For Rematch In Gov Election

Political parties contesting the July 16 governorship elections in Osun State have intensified their campaigns to woo the electorate ahead of the poll which will determine who will govern the state in the next four years after the expiration of the first term mandate of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

Oyetola, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, will again face Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election holding four years after their first contest.

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Oyetola defeated Adekeke four years ago but not until after a rerun election was conducted in some polling units due to violence recorded at the units during the first ballot.

The PDP candidate Adeleke had in 2018 polled 254,698 votes to beat Oyetola who scored  254,345 votes at the first ballot but the Independent National Electoral Commission said Adeleke could not be declared the winner because the number of votes cancelled in units where violence was recorded, 3,498, was higher than 353 by which the PDP candidate defeated Oyetola. The INEC fixed the rerun poll for September 27, 2018.

Despite that the then candidate of the Social Democratic Party , Senator Iyiola Omisore, who came third with 128,049 votes had been wooed over by the APC, the rerun poll was heavily monitised and hoodlums took over in some units despite the huge number of armed security agents deployed for the poll including soldiers.

Supporters of PDP claimed they were chased away and prevented from voting.

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This claim was corroborated by the delegations of the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States in a statement issued after the rerun but without saying which party perpetrated the violence

The delegations said, “In contrast to our overall findings on the vote of September 22, we were concerned to witness widespread incidents of interference and intimidation of voters, journalists, and civil society observers by some political party supporters and security agencies.”

The July 16 poll which will hold in the next two weeks will be keenly contested by the two leading parties and there are divergent views on who has an edge over the other
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Many changes have occured in the past fours years when Oyetola took over and some of his supporters have predicted a landslide victory for him at the poll.

Oyetola will enjoy the power of incumbency at the state and at the federal level as well as the support of the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is very close to Oyetola.

However, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has yet to declare his support for Oyetola who was his chief of staff for the eight years he spent as the governor of Osun State.

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Adeleke will enjoy the good will of his late brother and former governor of the state, Isiaka Adeleke as well as the goodwill of his immediate elder brother, Deji Adeleke, who is the father of popular artiste Davido.

Just like the APC, the PDP is also polarised and this may prove costly.

The Commissioner for Works in Osun State, Remi Omowaiye, who also served as a commissioner under Aregbesola recently predicted a landslide victory for Oyetola, saying Adeleke was not a match for Oyetola.

He said all the issues used by the PDP to campaign against the APC then had been resolved and coupled with the performance of Oyetola, the governor would have an easy ride back to the Government House.

Omowaiye said, “Governor Oyetola has done very well and all the issues used to campaign against us in 2018 have been resolved now. The issues were unpaid salaries and that has been resolved. We had issues with schools merger and same uniform and those ones have also been resolved.

“When Governor Oyetola came in, the debt profile was high and the governor has paid over N70bn and has not borrowed a kobo since then.

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“Osun is among the very few states that have paid minimum wage and we are rated alongside Lagos, Delta and two other states doing well in terms of contributory pensions. We have done very well in terms of infrastructural development without borrowing a kobo. These are some of our unique selling points unlike somebody who has never done anything meaningful.”

But Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has also said the PDP is ready to take back Osun State from the ruling APC.

Okowa said “A lot is being done. We look forward to the elections. I’m sure the APC would expect a stiff competition. We agree that they are the government in power in that state but they will be definitely expecting a very stiff competition from us. We are poised to take back that state.”

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