There was instant jubilation across Osun State on Sunday as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared the incumbent Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, as winner of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in the state.
From Osogbo to Ede, Iwo, Ejigbo, and several other towns across the state, people trooped to the street, drumming, dancing and singing, praising the outcome.
Adeleke, who is never short of singing choruses to God, prostrated full length in his home in Ede, praising God who, he said, made all things possible.
“I dedicate this victory to God,” he said. “I also dedicate the victory to the people of Osun who have shown me love.”
As appreciation of the love they have shown him, the jubilant and triumphant Governor promised to work his hands to the bones during the second term and move Osun from being a civil service state to an industrial state.
Adeleke did not gloat in victory. He stretched the olive branch to his opponents, declaring “no victor, no vanquished”.
He promised to work on post-election peace and deliver good governance as an appreciation of the love that the people of Osun State showed him at the polls.
Adeleke scored 511, 067 votes to trounce Bola Oyebamiji, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who came second with 444,815. Najeem Salaam, candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, came a distant third, scoring 17,180 votes.
Adeleke won in 19 local government areas of the state as against Oyebamiji’s 11.
The Crest recalls that Adeleke, who contested Saturday’s election on the platform of the Accord Party, had previously won the 2022 Osun governorship election as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). However, amid an internal crisis within the party, he later left the PDP and joined the Accord Party to pursue his re-election bid.
The outcome of Saturday’s election marks another chapter in Adeleke’s political career and gives him the opportunity to continue leading the state for a second term.
