TheCable

Festus Keyamo, spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, says the decision of the Osun governorship election petition tribunal is a “lesson for riggers”.

Speaking in a chat with TVC on Friday, Keyamo said the judgement demonstrated that the electoral process is “cleaner and better”.

TheCable had reported how the tribunal overturned the victory of Ademola Adeleke, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun governorship poll.

Two out of the three-member panel of the tribunal ruled in favour of Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to the ruling, Oyetola was able to prove that there was over-voting in some of the polling units.

Keyamo described the development as an awakening for “those who do not want to come to terms with our new electoral process,” adding that votes cannot be “stolen to cheat” people anymore.

“What happened was that when the figure of each polling unit was reviewed as recorded in BVAS and the Form EC8A, there were overvoting and discrepancies in 749 of them,” the minister of state for labour said.

“And the law is very clear now, once the voting exceeds the figures as captured by BVAS then automatically that unit is cancelled. There is no question of trying to deduct votes anymore, they will just cancel the entire unit.

“It is a lesson to riggers and those who do not want to come to terms with our new electoral process. Right now, our electoral process is cleaner and better. And you can see that over one hundred thousand votes were stolen by a candidate who was declared the winner of an election. The votes were stolen to cheat the people of Osun state.”

Adeleke is expected to appeal the judgement which he has described as “a miscarriage of justice”.