Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has won the contest at his polling unit in the governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

He emerged the winner of the exercise conducted on Saturday at his polling unit in Iragbiji town in Boripe Local Government Area of the state in south-west Nigeria.

Governor Oyetola is contesting for the APC ticket against a former Secretary to the Government of the State (SSG), Moshood Adeoti, as well as a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yussuff.

The APC conducted the primary using the direct mode across the wards in the state. This mode allows party members to choose the candidate of their choice.

According to the result announced in Oyetola’s polling unit, the governor has 1,612 votes from party faithful while his two co-contenders recorded zero votes.

In his reaction, Governor Oyetola commended the process which he described as free and fair. The exercise was also adjudged to be peaceful so far as no case of violence was recorded in some of the polling units visited by Channels Television crew.

Political parties are conducting primaries to select their candidates for the governorship election scheduled to hold on July 16, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In the build-up to Saturday’s primary, there has been a division within the ruling party in the state following a disagreement between incumbent Governor Oyetola and his predecessor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola.

This prompted the former governor to seek to unseat Oyetola whom he supported to succeed him in September 2018. Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had emerged as the runner-up in that election.

Aregbesola, who serves as the Minister of Interior in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet, has now declared his support for Adeoti, as his anointed candidate for the forthcoming election.

Notwithstanding the disagreement, the minister asked members of the party in the state loyal to him to conduct themselves in a peaceful matter throughout the exercise.

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.