Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has been declared the winner of the August 15 governorship election after securing the highest number of votes across the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Adeleke the winner at the state collation centre in Osogbo on Sunday morning.
The State Returning Officer, Prof. Joshua Ogunwole, who is the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, made the declaration at about 7:24am after the results from the 30 local government areas were collated.
Adeleke, who contested on the platform of the Accord Party, polled 511,067 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress, who scored 444,815 votes.
With the result, Adeleke secured another term as governor of Osun State.
The incumbent governor won in 19 local government areas, while Oyebamiji emerged victorious in 11 LGAs.
Adeleke secured victory in Ede North, Ede South, Ejigbo, Iwo, Egbedore, Ife North, Ife East, Ife Central, Oriade, Ifelodun, Orolu, Ayedaade, Ayedire, Odo Otin, Boluwaduro, Ilesa West, Ifedayo and Osogbo, among others.
Oyebamiji won Irewole, Isokan, Olorunda, Atakumosa East, Atakumosa West, Ilesa East, Boripe, Irepodun and Obokun, as well as other local government areas where the APC candidate recorded the highest votes.
The ADC candidate, Najeem Salaam, finished in third position with 17,180 votes.
According to the final figures announced at the collation centre, 1,010,684 voters were accredited for the election. A total of 1,005,800 votes were cast, while 985,079 votes were recorded as valid.
The APC finished behind Adeleke with 444,815 votes, while the remaining candidates shared the other votes recorded in the election.
The declaration followed the completion of the collation of results from all 30 local government areas and the signing of the results by representatives of the participating political parties.
After reviewing the results and confirming the figures presented from the various LGAs, the returning officer declared Adeleke duly elected and returned him for another term in office.
The outcome brings an end to the closely contested governorship election, which featured 15 political parties and attracted considerable attention across Osun State.
Adeleke will now continue as governor following his victory over Oyebamiji and the other candidates who participated in the poll.