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Osun State Governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has been presented the Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The certificate presentation on Wednesday was done by the INEC National Commissioner, Supervising Osun, Ogun and Oyo states, Prof. Kunle Ajayi.
Before Adeleke received his certificate as the Governor-elect, INEC had made a similar presentation to the deputy governor-elect, Prince Kola Adewusi.
The presentation came about 72 hours after Adeleke was declared the winner of the Saturday, July 16 poll, garnering 403, 371 votes to defeat the incumbent governor, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 375,027 votes.
Adeleke contested the poll on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In his acceptance speech after receiving the Certificate of Return at a brief ceremony held at the Osun INEC head office in Osogbo, Adeleke dedicated his victory at the poll to the memory of his late elder brother, Senator Isiaka Adeleke and the people of Osun State.
The PDP won 17 of the 30 Local Government Areas of the state, while the APC won the remaining 13.
The PDP won in Ede North, Ede South, Ifelodun, Boluwaduro, Egbedore, Odo Otin, Osogbo, Ila, Atakumosa West, Olorunda, Ilesa West, Obokun, Oriade, Orolu, Ife North, Irepodun, and Ejigbo LGAs.
The APC, on the other hand, won in Boripe, Ilesa East, Ayedire, Ifedayo, Ife Central, Ayedaade, Iwo, Olaoluwa, Isokan, Atakumosa East, Irewole, Ife South, and Ife East LGAs.
Although many believed the Osun governorship election was a two-horse race between Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and Senator Adeleke, no fewer than 15 political parties partook in the election.
Other candidates included Akin Ogunbiyi of Accord Party; Lasun Yusuff of Labour Party; Oyegoke Omigbodun of Social Democratic Party; Segun Awojide of African Action Congress; Kehinde Atanda of Action Democratic Party; Awoyemi Lukuman of Allied Peoples Movement; Adebayo Elisha of All Peoples Party; and Adeleke Adedapo of Boot Party.
Rasaq Saliu of New Nigeria Peoples Party; Abede Samuel of National Rescue Movement; Ayowole Adedeji of Peoples Redemption Party; Ademola Adeseye of Young Peoples Party; and Adesuyi Olufemi of Zenith Labour Party also participated in the election.
The election was held across 3,763 units in the 30 LGAs of the state and witnessed a huge voter turnout and was largely peaceful.
Of the 1,955,657 registered voters in the state, 1,479,595 Permanent Voter Cards were collected before the election.
In 2018, Adeleke was leading in the polls, but the election was declared inconclusive by INEC on the grounds that the number of cancelled votes exceeded the difference in the votes between both parties.
Oyetola eventually became governor after he won the rerun. Though Adeleke challenged the outcome, the Supreme Court in July 2019 upheld Oyetola as winner of the election on technical grounds.