The crisis rocking the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was blown open on Tuesday, as the opposition party elected two governorship candidates at parallel primaries for the July 16 governorship election in the state.
At one of the primaries held at the Osogbo City Stadium, under the supervision of the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, as chairman of the Osun PDP Governorship Primary Election, Senator Ademola Adeleke emerged the winner.
Declaring Adeleke as the winner of the primary election, Ewhrudjakpo said that Adeleke polled 1,887 votes, while his closet rival Sanya Omirin, garnered four votes.
The primary election which produced Adeleke was supervised by PDP representatives from Abuja, and witnessed by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Ewhrudjakpo said that other aspirants, including: Dele Adeleke scored one vote, Fatai Akinbade, Dotun Babayemi and Akin Ogunbiyi, recorded zero votes, according to .
He said that a total of 1,916 votes were recorded, while 24 votes were invalid.
He said, “By the power conferred on me as the Chief Returning Officer of this gubernatorial primary election, I hereby declared Adeleke Ademola Jackson, as the winner of this gubernatorial primary for the 2022 governorship election in Osun State.”
The Bayelsa State deputygovernor insisted that there was no parallel congress in the state.
But at another primary election held at the Women and Children Development Initiative Foundation, WOCDIF, Osogbo, where there was neither PDP representatives from Abuja nor INEC representatives, Prince Dotun Babayemi emerged the winner.
At the WOCDIF Centre primary election, the Returning Officer, Mr. Adelani Ajanaku, said that Babayemi polled 1,781 votes, while his closet rival, Adeleke scored 32 votes.
Ajanaku said that Fatai Akinbade scored 28 votes, Ogunbiyi 23 votes and Omirin polled 16 votes, respectively.
He said that 1,907 votes were recorded, with 27 voided.
In his acceptance speech, Babayemi expressed his gratitude to all his brothers and co-contestants, who voluntarily allowed him to fly the party’s flag.
