Former Senator Ademola Adeleke was on Tuesday declared winner of the governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State.
The governorship election is scheduled to hold on July 16.
The PDP primary, held at the 10,000 capacity Oshogbo stadium, was also contested by Dotun Babayemi.
The primary election held amid allegation of bias and litigations which could have stalled the process.
Senator Adeleke was also the PDP’s flagbearer in 2018 when he lost to incumbent Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress.
Chief Electoral Officer of the Osun PDP primary, Abiye Sekibo, stated that Senator Adeleke won over 1,800 votes with the rest of the five candidates on the ballot sharing just five votes.
He described the election as “smooth and calm.”
However, there were reports of a parallel primary being held in the state.
Prince Dotun Babayemi laid claim to the opposition’s party ticket, having being elected in separate primary elections at WOCDIF Event Centre .in Osogbo, the state capital.
The other primary election took place at the Osogbo City Stadium.
The exercise at the stadium was supervised by a committee from the national secretariat of the party led by the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa state, Mr Lawrence Oborawharievwo Ewhrudjakpo, but the one at the WOCDIF event center was not supervised by the committee.
Six aspirants, including Mr Ademola Adeleke, Prince Dotun Babayemi, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade, Mr Dele Adeleke, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, and Mr Omirin Emmanuel Olusanya were on the race for the PDP ticket and the Mohammed Adoke-led screening committee from the PDP National Secretariat cleared all of them for the contest.
However, four aspirants, Ogunbiyi, Dele, Omirin and Akinbade opted out.
But, Sekibo said he was not aware of a parallel primary.
“I am not aware that there was a parallel primary,” he said. “We have a letter signed by our party’s National Working Committee constituting our election committee. And we are complete.”.
