Senator Iyiola Omisore has stated certain conditions to be met by the PDP in order to get his support and that of his party for PDP’s candidate Senator Ademola Adeleke.
This news comes even as ripple effects from the recent Osun governorship election continue to be felt following the announcement of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) that the election was inconclusive and a rerun was ordered.
INEC had said it declared the election as inconclusive because the difference between the votes scored by the two leading parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), was lower than the number of votes cancelled.
After the collation of all the results from the 30 council areas of the state, Adeleke of the PDP had 254,698 while the candidate of APC, Gboyega Oyetola, polled 254,345.
INEC had said the rerun would take place in seven polling units located in Orolu, Osogbo, Ife North and Ife South council areas on Thursday.
Due to the announcement of the rerun election for Thursday September 28, activities has intensified by both the APC and the PDP to find allies among the candidates and the supporters of the other parties who scored less than both leading parties in the election.
The most valuable of these candidates happens to be Senator Iyiola Omisore who scored 128,049 votes in the election.
This is due to the fact that the rerun election will be held in some of Omisore’s strongholds which include Ife South where elections in two units were cancelled.
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This prompted the Senate President and PDP member, Bukola Saraki to visit Omisore in Ife on Monday to canvass for support for Senator Adeleke the PDP candidate.
Omisore said during the visit;
“I have given my programmes to both the APC and the PDP. My programme is like this; payment of salaries and pensions. Good governance is what is important to me.
Anyone between the two that will do that will get my support. I am passionate about Osun State and my interest is the welfare of the people of this state. I have told those sent to me. At the appropriate time, we will tell you where we are going.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, Saraki told reporters waiting outside that Omisore had agreed in principle to support the PDP in the rerun of the election on Thursday.
His words;
“We had a fruitful discussion with Senator Omisore. He used to be with us. And we believe he is helping us now. I am optimistic of a good outing for the PDP. After meeting with him, I am more optimistic now that with his support, the PDP will win. We are confident of a good outing. I am more confident now.
I was hard on INEC because it declared the Osun poll inconclusive after doing a good job. The issue of vote-buying was on the front burner but that was reduced to the minimum as against what we witnessed during the Ekiti poll. At the end of the day, the poll was again declared inconclusive. That sort of took away all the commendations that should have gone the way of INEC.”