Declare Adeleke Osun Governor-elect, Says Dankwambo
Declaration
By Esbee Oguns
Abuja,Sept.23,2018(Flowerbud News) Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, incumbent Governor, Gombe state and Presidential aspirant has called on Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to reverse itself and conclude Osun Gubernatorial election by declaring Sen. Ademola Adeleke of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) winner of Sept.22 election.
Dankwambo,a PDP Presidential hopeful, made the call on Sunday in a statement signed by Dr. Ayoade Adewopo, Director, Media & Strategic communication of his presidential campaign organization.
Flowerbud News reports that PDP candidate Adeleke, polled 254,698 votes against 254,345 votes for APC’s Gboyega Oyetola while 3,498 votes were cancelled by INEC at four polling units across four of the 30 Local Governments in the state
Full text of the statement:
Declare Adeleke Osun Governor-elect, Says Dankwambo:
Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, incumbent Governor of Gombe state and Presidential aspirant under the flagship of PDP, this afternoon stated in a released statement by the Director, Media & Strategic communication of his presidential campaign organization, Dr. Ayoade Adewopo, that INEC should declare Senator Ademola Adeleke the winner of the just concluded gubernatorial election in Osun state. In the statement, Dr. Dankwambo declared INEC’s pronouncement that the Osun gubernatorial election is inconclusive a rape on our democracy by INEC and its pay master APC. He further stated that the action is a deviation from the sportmanship demonstrated by former President Goodluck Jonathan, a hero of our democracy in 2015.
Dr. Dankwambo further advised the other 47 candidates in the election to pick up their phones and make congratulatory calls to Senator Ademola Adeleke who was duly elected as the 5th executive governor by the good people of Osun in the historic election.
According to Dr. Dankwambo, INEC’s pronouncement has no standing under our laws. Section 179 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended) clearly stated that for a candidate to be declared duly elected to the office of Governor of a State in Nigeria he should win a majority of the total number of valid votes cast and must have scored at least 25% of the total number of valid votes cast in at least two-thirds of the total number of local governments in the state.
Therefore, once the constitutional requirements are fulfilled a winner of the election must be declared irrespective of the margin of victory.
According to Dankwambo, a winner should have been declared, there is no need for a re-run.
Finally, Dr. Dankwambo congratulated Senator Ademola Adeleke, Osun State PDP Chapter, the National organ of the party and all the good people of Osun state for putting up a good fight at ending the draconian APC government in Osun and Nigeria at large.
