The Chairman of the Osun Primary Election Committee and Governor of Bayelsa State, the Honourable Henry Seriake Dickson, has charged the leaders and members of the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to collaborate more and forge stronger unity ahead of the September 22, 2018 Governorship poll in the state.

The Governor said that for PDP to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), it must be cohesive: PDP leaders and members must work together, eschew bitterness and go into the polls as a strong and united people.

A statement by Governor Dickson’s Special Adviser on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, quoted him as having made the call in Osogbo, the Osun State capital on Saturday while declaring the result of the keenly contested governorship primary election for the party which was won by Senator Ademola Adeleke.

The Senator scored 1,569 votes to defeat his closest rival Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi who scored 1562 votes in the primary election.

The other aspirants, Barr. Nathaniel Oke (SAN) got three votes and Alhaji Fatai Akingbade, polled 52 votes while some votes were invalid.

Before declaring the results of the election, the agents for Dr. Ogunbiyi demanded a recount of votes which the Chairman of the committee acceded to in the spirit of fairness and transparency.

The votes were recounted for about two hours to the satisfaction of all agents and stakeholders of the party at the venue.

While describing the primary as one of the most fiercely contested elections, the Governor said PDP is the ultimate winner as according to him, there was no victor, no vanquished.

He said that the election only signified the commencement of a long journey to political victory in Osun State stressing that the forthcoming gubernatorial election would be a tough political battle.

He said: “You are aware of how the other party did abracadabra and claimed they have a candidate. For our party, for over four hours we have gone through a transparent and painstaking process of electing a candidate. I have seen that PDP is on ground in Osun and I am confident that if all hands are on deck, PDP will triumph.

“That is why we call on all our aspirants to cooperate. This exercise alone is not an end in itself. Nobody should go and celebrate yet. Celebration should be after we win the Governorship election on September, 22.

“The Governorship Election is not going to be a tea party. It is our duty to call for collaboration. You can only succeed if all of you collaborate and work together for the victory of PDP.

“This is the closest, the most keenly contested Governorship primary that I have participated in. I congratulate Dr. Ogunbiyi on a keen contest. These two people need to unite our party. They need to join hand together, to work for our party.”

Dickson said that there was no victor no vanquished in the election, insisting that the PDP is the ultimate winner in the outcome of the election.

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