The Osun State election tribunal has revealed that Senator Iyiola Omisore, who contested for governorship under the umbrella of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, received more votes than Rauf Aregbesola of the All progressives Congress, APC, in the gubernatorial polls.
The returning officer of the Independent National Electorial Commission, (INEC) for the state, Professor Bamitale Omole announced that the incumbent, Aregbesola, won a majority of votes with 394,684 votes (57.4%), over Omisor who won 292,747 votes.
The re-counted results, according to the tribunal, puts Aregbesola at 296,344 votes and Omisore at 308,299, making him the authentic winner of the elections which held on August 9, 2014, according to Hope for Nigeria.
Omisore has asked the Tribunal to declare him winner and governor elect of Osun State, while Aregbesola demands INEC to re-run the elections.
Following this development, Osun state is likely to have a new governor in weeks to come.
The tribunal’s manual inspection and re-counting of ballot papers from the election exposed that over one hundred thousand invalid votes were counted in favour of Aregbesola in almost all Local Government Areas in the state.
The tribunal adjourned sitting to October 30, 2014 with newly appointed judges as members.
Serving as chairman of the tribunal will be Justice E.N. Ikpejime from Benue State. Justice V.I Ofesi from Delta State and Justice Kutigi from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja are members.
When the tribunal confirms the re-counted votes which revealed Omisore as winner, he will be sworn in as the next governor of the state.
This could happen in weeks to come.
The Newly reconstituted Election tribunal in Osun is billed to commence it's sitting on Thursday @ChannelsTV_NG
— ChannelsTV Politics (@CTVpolitics) October 27, 2014
So far, materials from only six local government areas have been scanned for scrutiny by the parties @ChannelsTV_NG
— ChannelsTV Politics (@CTVpolitics) October 27, 2014
Omisore camp claims their candidate has more valid votes based on the evidences gotten from scanned ballot materials @ChannelsTV_NG
— ChannelsTV Politics (@CTVpolitics) October 27, 2014