Gboyega Oyetola, Osun state governor, will be the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the July 16 governorship election.

The governor, who is seeking a second term in office, defeated Moshood Adeoti and Yusuf Lasun to win the governorship primary on Saturday.

The results were announced around 3am on Sunday by AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Kwara state governor and chairman of the Osun APC primary election committee.

“I hereby certified that Gboyega Oyetola, having secured the number of highest votes cast at the primary election and having secured all guidelines contained, is hereby declared winner,” he said.

Oyetola was adjudged to have polled 222,169 votes while his closest challenger, Moshood Adeoti, secured 12,921 votes and Yusuf Lasun had just 460.

According to the primary election committee, the total number of accredited voters was 247,207 while 235,550 votes were cast.

The primary election was marred by allegations of widespread irregularities while several party members also claimed that their names were expunged from the voters’ register.

Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, had described the exercise as a “sham of an election”.

The minister had asked his supporters not to take laws into their hands, saying his camp will “explore all peaceful and legal means for addressing the matter in order to obtain justice”.

APC in Osun has two factions: one is loyal to Aregbesola while the other pledges allegiance to Oyetola, the incumbent governor of the state.

Aregbesola’s faction backed Adeoti to pick the governorship ticket but he placed second in the primary.

The Cable