“I Had No Electoral Deal, Partnership With ADC Before, During, After Governorship Election” – Osun Gov Adeleke

By Ayodele Oni

Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has clarified that the African Democratic Congress(ADC) was never part of the rainbow coalition that canvassed and supported his battle for last Saturday’s election.

He denied reports from the African Democratic Congress that it helped the Osun Governor to win re-election.

The Governor declared that he had no electoral deal or partnership with the ADC before, during and after the Governorship election.

A statement by Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed on Tuesday, said the Governor credited his victory to God and Osun people.

He commended political partners who sacrificed to make the aspirations of Osun people a reality.

The statement quoted the governor as saying, “I commend political partners who went all out to make Saturday a victory day for all Osun people. But we must clarify for the sake of history that ADC was never part of the alliance.

“Now that the election is over, I am Governor of all Osun people irrespective of political groups, religion or race.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, had disclosed during a monitored television programme while reacting to the party’s performance in the election, that the party collaborated with the Accord Party during the August 15 Osun State governorship election to prevent the All Progressives Congress from reclaiming power in the state.

The ADC’s governorship candidate, Najeem Salaam, polled 17,180 votes in the election.

The incumbent governor and Accord candidate, Ademola Adeleke, won the election with 511,067 votes, defeating his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, who secured 444,815 votes.

Abdullahi stated that the ADC had identified the possibility of opposition votes being divided, which, he said, could have given the APC an advantage.

“We saw the possibility of collaboration. We saw the possibility earlier enough that if we decided to go full throttle, the possibility that the opposition would divide the votes and the APC would take the victory was there.

“And that was why we saw the opportunity to work together, and that was what happened.”

He added that the ADC did not consider its governorship candidate’s performance a failure because the party’s primary objective was to prevent the APC from returning to power in the state.

“That is why we can confidently celebrate what is going on in Osun, because for us, victory means that APC was defeated.”