The All Progressives Congress has said it will not be pressured into congratulating Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, over his victory in the August 15 governorship election, insisting that it is still reviewing the results before deciding its next step.
The Director-General of the APC governorship campaign in the state, Oluwole Oke, stated this in an interview with Arise News on Monday.
Oke said the party was conducting a detailed review of the election and would only decide what action to take after examining the results and other relevant documents.
He said the APC campaign team was not prepared to accept the outcome announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission without first examining the process that produced the result.
“And like I’ve told you that what we are doing, even for future, for records, is to conduct a thorough review of the entire process and then form our opinion.
“We won’t be under any sort of pressure to easily reach out to congratulate Senator Ademola Adeleke,” Oke said.
The APC campaign director-general added that the party did not agree with INEC’s declaration of Adeleke as the winner.
“We do not agree with the declaration of INEC. That’s our position for now. We believe he did not score the highest valid votes,” he said.
INEC declared Adeleke the winner after he polled 511,067 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815 votes.
The candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Najeem Salaam, came third with 17,180 votes.
Adeleke won in 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji won in 11.
The result gave Adeleke a margin of 66,252 votes over his APC challenger.
Following the declaration, Adeleke said he expected Oyebamiji to call and congratulate him, describing such a gesture as the “civilised thing to do.”
However, the APC campaign team said it would not rush into such a decision until it completed its assessment of the election.
Oke said the party had a responsibility to examine the records and determine whether the election was conducted in accordance with the law.
“When you have a project of this nature with the outcome announced by INEC, we will not be in a haste, nor shall we be under pressure without doing the needful,” he said.
According to him, the party had already started an audit of the election and directed its agents across the state to submit copies of relevant result sheets for examination.
“We have embarked on an audit process. We have asked all our party agents to submit copies of Forms EC8A, B, and C to our secretariat for review. We need to inspect the materials,” Oke said.
The result sheets are important election documents used at different stages of the collation process.
Form EC8A is used to record results at the polling unit, while other forms are used during the collation of results at higher levels.
The APC said examining the forms would allow the party to compare the figures recorded at polling units and wards with the results eventually declared by INEC.
The party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, also said the APC was still studying results from all 332 wards in the state.
Olabisi said the party would not make a final decision until the review was completed.
The APC maintained that the election process did not end with the declaration of a winner and pointed to the legal avenues available to candidates and political parties who have grievances.
According to the party, an election dispute can move from the tribunal to the Court of Appeal and, where applicable, the Supreme Court.
The party said it would consult its lawyers and consider all legal options provided under the Electoral Act if its review uncovered irregularities.
Oke said the party would also examine events that took place before election day and assess the conduct of the election against the Electoral Act and other relevant laws.
“Until we do that and form our opinion, we won’t be able to go further to say anything on this,” he said.
The position of the Osun APC campaign team differs from that of President Bola Tinubu, who congratulated Adeleke after INEC declared him the winner.
Tinubu’s congratulatory message reflected the Federal Government’s acceptance of the official result, while the APC campaign team in Osun said it needed to examine the process before accepting the outcome.
The development is not unusual in Nigerian elections, where candidates and parties sometimes challenge results announced by the electoral commission.
Parties that believe an election was not conducted according to the law can seek legal redress by presenting evidence before the appropriate election tribunal.
The APC’s decision to audit the election also means that the party is likely to spend the coming days examining polling-unit results and comparing them with its own records.
The party would need credible evidence to support any formal challenge to the result if it eventually decides to approach the tribunal.
The Osun governorship election was closely contested, with the incumbent governor seeking another term against a strong APC challenge.
The poll also attracted significant attention because of the political rivalry between the PDP-led state government and the APC.
Despite the campaign team’s rejection of the result, the official figures announced by INEC show that Adeleke secured a clear majority over Oyebamiji.
The governor’s victory also extended his political control of the state after he defeated the APC candidate in the 2022 governorship election.
However, the APC campaign leadership has insisted that the figures must first be properly examined before it accepts the outcome.
Beyond the election result, Oke also criticised the performance of the Adeleke administration, particularly in the areas of education, healthcare and support for farmers.
He argued that the state government had failed to meet the expectations of residents.
“When you look at this in totality, you can see the failures of government glaring in the citizens’ faces,” he said.
Oke urged the public to give the APC campaign team time to complete its review before announcing its next course of action.
The party’s decision will depend largely on the findings of its audit and whether it believes there are sufficient grounds to challenge the election result.
For now, Adeleke remains the governor-elect based on INEC’s declaration, while the APC has reserved its position and is examining the election materials.
The coming days are therefore expected to determine whether the party will accept the result, congratulate Adeleke or proceed with a legal challenge.
Until then, the APC campaign team says it will not be rushed into accepting the outcome or offering congratulations.