CODER, Seven other CSOs Endorse Osun Guber Poll

Six civil society organisations have given the recently concluded Osun State gubernatorial election their seal of approval and praised the umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “for exhibiting professionalism and neutrality despite threats, intimidation and blackmail before and during the election.”

The six representatives and the groups are Dr. Mrs. Olufunke Adesina of the Centre for Women Agenda (CWA); Comrade Adedapo Ajisegiri of the Campaign Against Social Injustice (CASI); Comrade Ono- tosho Hakeem of the Centre for Sustainable Dialogue (CSD); Dr. Oyedokun Alli of the Development Advocacy Group (DAG); Comrade Jerry Nwachukwu of the Rights Monitor Agenda (RMA); Comrade Wale Adeoye of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER); Samuel Bakare, Nigerian Human Rights Community (NHRC) and Comrade Ajayi Popoola of the Coalition for Peaceful Election (COPE).

The rerun of the Osun State governorship election was held in seven polling units across four council areas on Thursday, 27th September with the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gboyega Oyetola, beating the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Ademola Adeleke. The returning officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, declared that the APC candidate, Oyetola, won the governorship election by scoring a total number of 255,505 votes while Adeleke of the PDP polled 255,023 votes.

In a statement issued on Saturday 29th September, 2018, in Lagos, the groups said the election was largely peaceful and congratulated the people of Osun State for “their civil, peaceful and orderly conduct in jealously guarding their mandate and proving that the will of the people is supreme in a democracy.”

The state ment reads in part, “We, the undersigned civil society organizations as election observer groups, heartily congratulate the good people of Osun State for trooping out to the polls both on the 22nd of September and on the 27th September, 2018 rerun election, to elect the state’s helmsman whose outcome is a reflection of the will of the people as expressed at the polls.