A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has rated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) low in the conduct of last weekend’s Osun State governorship election.

Okonkwo, who was a guest on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s breakfast programme, The Morning Brief, questioned the electoral umpire about the stalling of results upload on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

While hailing the outcome of the election, which saw incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke getting a fresh four-year term in office, he said, “I am not congratulating INEC whatsoever for what happened in Osun State.”

“By 8 p.m., they suspended the uploading of results on IReV, and nobody has come out to tell us why, and they must come out to tell us why. So there is still apprehension, and I’m telling you that the performance of INEC is not to be applauded. It is to be questioned. Why did they suspend the uploading of the results by 8 p.m.? And then the people of Osun had to fight. They had to go to collation centres,” the actor-turned-politician said.

He asked the opposition to prepare ahead of next year’s election, insisting that Nigeria’s electoral process is “not there yet”.

Governor Adeleke of the Accord Party was declared the winner of Saturday’s exercise, having scored 511,067 votes. His closest contender was Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 444,815 votes, while ADC’s Najeem Salaam finished a distant third with 17,180 votes.

In the lead-up to the exercise, ADC’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and some chieftains of the opposition party, including a former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, were in Osogbo for the party’s grand rally.

Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State was first elected in 2022.

Despite coming a distant third in the election, the spokesperson to the ADC presidential candidate praised his party for its outing in the Osun governorship poll.

“Our performance was very commendable because we didn’t have the state apparatus in the state. We didn’t have the Federal Government apparatus. And as you can see, the state government, through Honourable Salam, you can see all the things they passed through, even with the apparatus of state.

“Then you can imagine ADC, which didn’t have any apparatus of state, whether state or federal. But at least we are happy that the opposition has proved a point,” Okonkwo said.

He praised residents of Osun State for not succumbing to “intimidation” and “manipulation” before, during, and after the exercise.

“Well, first of all, let me congratulate the Osun people for this wonderful victory. It was very decisive. Let me also extend my congratulations to Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party,” the lawyer said.

“You know, the Osun people refused to succumb to the blackmail, intimidation, manipulation, political banditry, and political hegemony that the Aso Rock landlord wanted to foist on them, and they came out with a decisive victory. If you recall, Osun people were arrested, they were jailed, they were injured, and they were killed. But they resisted. They did not succumb to all that banditry.”

According to him, the Accord Party’s victory in the Osun governorship election is an indication “that the power of the people will always be greater than the people in power”.

“Of course, according to Atiku Abubakar, this is a forerunner of what 2027 is going to be like. And he also said another important lesson is that this is a manifestation of how the resolve of the people to stand and defend their votes will always lead to an end to rigging, buying, and other electoral malpractice,” Okonkwo said. (Channels)