Incumbent Governor of Osun state, Adegboyega Oyetola has won the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Primary Election held on Saturday.
Oyetola emerged victorious after scoring the highest number of votes in the direct primary election held across the 332 wards in the state.
The Governor defeated Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, a former Secretary to Osun State Government.
With the victory, Governor Oyetola has now secured the mandate to fly the party’s flag in the forthcoming July 16, 2022 gubernatorial election in the state.
Oyetola scored a total of 222,169 votes to beat his closest challenger, Adeoti who polled a total of 12,921 votes and Yussuff, who secured a total of 460 votes.
The results, as collated by the returning officers for all the 30 local government areas of the state including the area office and announced by Chairman of the Primary Election Committee, made it a landslide triumph for the incumbent.
Declaring Oyetola winner of the election, Chairman of the Primary Election Committee, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak of Kwara State, said victory belonged to the people who spoke empahtically with their votes.
In his remarks, the State Chairman of APC, Prince Gboyega Famodun, expressed appreciation to the committee and representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for overseeing the successful conduct of the exercise.
The Osun Governorship Primary Election was largely peaceful throughout the state despite initial apprehension over possible breakdown of order.
Meanwhile, Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, whose preferred candidate, Adeoti lost the election, had earlier in a statement issued on his behalf by his media adviser, Sola Fasure, thanked party members for exercising their franchise and urged them to continue to follow the path of peace.
The statement read in part: “I will like to thank you most sincerely for heeding the call earlier this morning to participate in our party’s governorship primary and conduct yourselves most peacefully.
You adopted a non-violent posture, even in the face of sore provocation. You have demonstrated your loyalty to the party and democratic ideals. You have comported yourselves as Omoluabi in the true essence.
“Please remain committed to peace and the rule of law. Be unflinching in your commitment to the democratic ideals. Democracy is for the long haul.”
