Osun Gov: 14 Candidates Eye Oyetola’s Job; INEC Assures Parties

By Ayodele Oni

Political parties and Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) are in the last minute preparation  ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Osun state.

Coming barely a month after a similar exercise in Ekiti state, the Nigeria’s Electoral body, INEC, has again assured stakeholders of a level playing field during the election.

Political parties, are rounding up their campaigns while INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, on Tuesday, presided over stakeholders meeting where he updated them about preparations by the commission.

At the event, Yakubu told the people that  the choice of who emerges as next governor of the state now rests on the electorate.

Yakubu also disclosed that about 1,479, 595 out of 1,955,657 voters, representing 76 percent of eligible voters had collected their voters cards.

“We are  updating our records to provide a detailed breakdown of PVCs collected by polling units. This will be concluded and made available on Friday 15th July 2022.

“For us in INEC, let me reassure political parties, candidates, and the electorate that the choice of who becomes the next governor of Osun State is entirely in the hands of voters.

“As I have repeatedly said in previous engagements with stakeholders, INEC will not take any action to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate. Our focus is on the processes and procedures as provided by law

14 governorship candidates, are  in contest to wrestle power from incumbent  Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturday’s election.

Prominent among the candidates are Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Yusuf Lasun of the Labour Party (LP), Oyegoke Omigbodun of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party (AP).

Some candidate had left the APC and PDP to pick the ticket of other parties after their defeat at the governorship primary election.