THE candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gboyega Oyetola, has been declared the winner of the Osun State governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Returning Officer, Joseph Fuwape, made the announcement in the early hours of Friday.

According to the figures, Oyetola got a total of 255,505 votes, while his opponent, Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), secured 255,023 votes.

Adeleke had been leading in the polls after Saturday’s election with 254,698 votes to Oyetola’s 254, 345 votes, a margin of 353 votes, but INEC declared the election inconclusive because the number of cancelled votes was higher than the margin with which the PDP led.

A supplementary election was scheduled for Thursday, to be held in seven polling units across four local government areas of the state.

The results of the supplementary election, as announced by INEC, are as follows:

OSOGBO LGA:
Unit 17 Ataoja ward 5
APC:299

OROLU LGA:
Units 1&4 ward A
APC: 280
PDP: 122

IFE SOUTH LGA:
Unit 12 ward 7
APC: 455
PDP: 36

IFE NORTH LGA:

In total, the APC garnered a total of 1160 on Thursday, bringing its grand total to 255,505, while the PDP had 325, to score a grand total of 255,023.

Thursday’s supplementary election was fraught with irregularities and violence. Accredited journalists and election observers were not allowed access to some polling units, while some who tried to take photographs were arrested and briefly detained, or had their equipment confiscated.

International observers, made up of delegates from the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the European Union, also criticized Thursday’s exercise.

“We witnessed what appeared to be incidents of interference and intimidation of voters, and heard reports of harassments of party monitors, journalists, and domestic observers,” said the US Consul General, John Bray.