Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party has maintained his lead in the ongoing collation of results from Saturday’s Osun State governorship election.

Checks on the Nigeria Elections Intelligence System showed that results from 303 of the state’s 332 wards had been collated, with Adeleke polling 177,572 votes, representing 50.5 per cent of the votes counted.

His closest challenger, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji (AMBO), had 158,588 votes, representing 45.1 per cent.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, was in third position with 5,917 votes as of the time of filing this report.

Collation was still ongoing across the state’s 30 local government areas.

Figures from the collation showed that 845,100 voters were registered, while 361,500 were accredited, representing a voter turnout of 42.8 per cent.

A total of 351,500 valid votes had been recorded, while 7,200 ballots were rejected.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said 43.41 per cent of polling units had reported results as the collation entered its concluding stages.

Adeleke, who is seeking re-election, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Accord Party ahead of the election. INEC cleared 14 political parties to contest the poll after the PDP and Labour Party failed to field candidates.

Adeleke is running with Kola Adenusi as his deputy, while Oyebamiji, a former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), has Benjamin Adereti as his running mate.

The final result is expected to be formally declared by INEC’s Returning Officer at the state collation centre after all outstanding results have been received and collated. (Sunday Tribune)

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