Senator Ademola Adeleke on Saturday emerged the winner of the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship primary election.
The lawmaker represents Osun West Senatorial District at the National Assembly.
The chairman of the election committee and Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, declared Adeleke the winner after he defeated three other aspirants in the exercise held in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
Adeleke polled a total of 1,569 votes to beat his closest rival, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, who scored 1,562 votes.
Although Adeleke was the favourite of the party leaders, it was not a smooth ride for him.
Out of 11 aspirants initially jostling for the party’s ticket, seven withdrew from the race after persuasion from the party leaders.
They include a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Adejare Bello; Professor Adeolu Durotoye; Jide Adeniji; Senator Olasukanmi Akinlabi; Ayoade Adewopo, Lere Oyewumi and Felix Ogunwale.
However, Fatai Akinbade, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi and Nathaniel Oke did not agree to withdraw from the race to the dismay of the party leaders.
The vote shows that it was keenly contested.
Adeleke, despite the support he had, was only able to defeat his closest rival by a narrow margin.
That result did not go down well with delegates of the other aspirants, especially Ogunbiyi.
They felt that the process was not fair and demanded a recount of the ballot papers.
According to reports, Governor Dickson declined the request.
Adeleke will now face Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC, in the main election, as well as candidates of other political parties.
Unlike Adeleke, Oyetola who is reportedly Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cousin had a smooth primary election.
The primary, The Next Edition gathered from a reliable source was a mere formality.
He was endorsed by Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Tinubu.
Oyetola polled 127,017 votes to defeat his closest rival, Hon. Yusuf Lasun, who polled 21,975 votes, while Najeem Salaam, speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly came third with 17, 958 votes.
Although there are candidates of other parties who will run for the post of the governor in September, the focus will be on Adeleke and Oyetola who are candidates of the two main parties, PDP and APC respectively.
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The election will be keenly contested as Oyetola is running under the platform of the ruling party, while Adeleke has the support of the grassroots due to the efforts of his brother, the late Isiaka Adeleke.
Many Nigerians would recall that in 2017, Senator Isiaka Adeleke who was a brother to Ademola was aspiring to run for the post of the governor under the platform of the APC before his sudden death.
His seat was declared vacant and his brother, Ademola, resigned from the ruling APC to officially become the PDP candidate to replace him in the Senate.
Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, in connivance with other stakeholders of the APC cleared Mudasiru Hussein to run unopposed for the Osun West senatorial district.
As a result, Ademola Adeleke left the APC for the PDP.
In that election, he defeated Hussein of the ruling party to replace his brother in the Senate.
Today, he is the flag bearer of the PDP for the September 22 governorship election.
