INEC’s Performance In Osun Election ‘Not To Be Applauded,’ Says Okonkwo

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has rated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) low in the conduct of last weekend’s Osun State governorship election. Okonkwo, who was a guest on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s breakfast programme, The Morning Brief, questioned the electoral umpire about the stalling of results upload on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. While hailing the outcome of the election, which saw incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke getting a fresh four-year term in office, he said, “I am not congratulating INEC whatsoever for what happened in Osun State.” “By 8 p.m., they suspended the uploading of results on IReV, and nobody has come out to tell us why, and they must come out to tell us why. So there is still apprehension, and I’m telling you that the performance of INEC is not to be applauded. It is to be questioned. Why did they suspend the uploading of the results by 8 p.m.? And then the people of Osun had to fight. They had to go to collation centres,” the actor-turned-politician said. He asked the opposition to prepare ahead of next year’s election, insisting that Nigeria’s electoral process is “not there yet”. Governor Adeleke of the Accord Party was declared the winner of Saturday’s exercise, having scored 511,067 votes. His closest contender was Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 444,815 votes, while ADC’s Najeem Salaam finished a distant third with 17,180 votes. In the lead-up to the exercise, ADC’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and some chieftains of the opposition party, including a former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, were in Osogbo for the party’s grand rally. https://youtu.be/9ig3ZwW9xNk?si=Lb180kXdOfB59gNT