Gboyega Oyetola, the Chief of Staff (COS) to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, has won the Osun State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket.
Oyetola emerged through what the party described as direct primary.
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who acted as the Chairman of the APC Governorship Primary Election Panel, announced the result of the election on Friday night.
Oyetola, who is from Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area, in the Osun Central Senatorial District won the highest number of votes in the primary.
He polled 127,017 votes to defeat the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf; Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Dr. Najeem Salam; Mr. Kunle Adegoke; Mr. Saka Layonu (SAN), and other contestants.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives came second with 21,975 votes while the Speaker of the House of Assembly came third with 17,958.
Some of the governorship aspirants had announced their withdrawal from the race shortly before the exercise started.
Their withdrawal came as the party went ahead with the direct primary method where supporters queued behind the agents of their preferred aspirants after which the Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor, Oyetola, took an early lead.
One of the aspirants, who participated in the primary, Kunle Adegoke, described the exercise as a charade, saying it was skewed to favour the winner.
Adegoke said, “What we experienced in Osun today is not a primary in any way. It was a charade and it was in contravention of basic tenets of democracy.
“I will not dump the party because of the issues. I will remain in the party and correct this anomaly by challenging the process in court.”
He lamented that the party conducted the primary without a verifiable membership database despite using the direct primary method instead of a delegate system.
He also alleged that hoodlums were used to harass and coerce members of the party to vote for Oyetola and that those that resisted were beaten by the thugs.
The Senator representing the Osun East Senatorial District, Babajide Omoworare; Secretary to the Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti; and the Chairman of the Osun State Local Government Service Commission, Mr. Peter Babalola, had withdrawn from the election before its commencement.
Adeoti announced his withdrawal from the primary in a statement made available to our correspondent by the Director of Media and Publicity, Moshood Adeoti Campaign Organisation, Mr. Kayode Agbaje.
Omoworare’s decision not to participate in the exercise was contained in a statement by his Director of Communications, Mr. Tunde Dairo, while Babalola’s decision to boycott the election was monitored on Rave FM, an Osogbo-based private radio station.
Adeoti’s statement partly read, “Alhaji Moshood Adeoti has formally withdrawn his participation from today’s governorship primary of the party. His withdrawal is based on his decision not to add credibility to a skewed and jaundiced process already designed to favour an anointed aspirant.”
