The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the PDP candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke winner of the Osun governorship election.
The Returning Officer for the election, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, announced the result early hours of Sunday morning.
Professor Ogunfipe who is also the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos declared that Adeleke got a total of 403,371 votes to beat the incumbent Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC who scored 375,027 votes in the race.
The total votes recorded by the electoral umpire revealed that the the APC won only 13 Local Government Areas, while the PDP won 17 of the 30 Local Government Areas of the state.
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The APC won in Boripe, Ilesa East, Ayedire, Ifedayo, Ife Central, Ayedaade, Iwo, Olaoluwa, Isokan, Atakumosa East, Ife South, Ife Central, and Ife East LGAs.
On the other hand, the PDP won in Ede North, Ede South, Ifelodun, Boluwaduro, Egbedore, Odo Otin, Osogbo, Ila, Atakumosa West, Olorunda, Ilesa West, Obokun, Oriade, Orolu, Ife North, Irepodun, and Ejigbo LGAs.
TNG had published a video where Adeleke and his nephew, award-winning Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, were seen in a video that surfaced online, celebrating an early lead when the counting started.
Meanwhile, in the Situation Room of the PDP, there was also wild jubilation as the PDP claimed it was winning the election even before the final results were announced.
Although many believed the Osun governorship election was a two-horse race between Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and Senator Adeleke, no fewer than 15 political parties partook in the election.
Other candidates included Akin Ogunbiyi of Accord Party; Lasun Yusuff of Labour Party; Oyegoke Omigbodun of Social Democratic Party; Segun Awojide of African Action Congress; Kehinde Atanda of Action Democratic Party; Awoyemi Lukuman of Allied Peoples Movement; Adebayo Elisha of All Peoples Party; and Adeleke Adedapo of Boot Party.
Rasaq Saliu of New Nigeria Peoples Party; Abede Samuel of National Rescue Movement; Ayowole Adedeji of Peoples Redemption Party; Ademola Adeseye of Young Peoples Party; and Adesuyi Olufemi of Zenith Labour Party also participated in the election.
The poll was, however, characterised by massive vote-buying, which drew the condemnation of some candidates and civil society organisations.
The election was held across 3,763 units in the 30 LGAs of the state and witnessed a huge voter turnout and was largely peaceful.
Of the 1,955,657 registered voters in the state, 1,479,595 Permanent Voter Cards were collected before the election.
To keep the peace in the state, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, had deployed about 21,000 police operatives, apart from other security outfits also present which included the military and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.