The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, while reacting to the just concluded Osun State elections, has reiterated that Nigerians have rejected Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, following the outcome of the Osun State governorship election.
The group had also compared the election to the June 12th 1993 presidential poll that saw the emergence of the debonair Newspaper publisher MKO Abiola as the winner.
The rights group asked the national leadership of the APC and the defeated Osun State’s incumbent governor to accept the freely entered decision of the people of the State.
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HURIWA had noted that the voters chose the winner based strictly on individual merit and competence of the candidate and not on partisan basis. The election, HURIWA says, is a defeat of godfatherism because the voters rejected the godfather, Tinubu, who campaigned vigorously for his cousin the losing incumbent governor.
INEC had on Sunday declared the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Nurudeen Adeleke as the winner of the hotly contested, controversial election.
The INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe announced that Adeleke defeated his closest rival, Oyetola, polling 403,371 votes against Oyetola’s 375,027 votes. Adeleke won in 17 local government areas of the State. Governor Oyetola, on the other hand, won in 13 LGAs.
And in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, HURIWA noted that there was no incident of violence or rancour, hailing both President Muhammadu Buhari for his total non-interference in the election.
The group also hailed the conduct of the NYSC participants who served as Adhoc staff at the election and showered encomiums on INEC boss, Professor Yakubu Mahmood and the Independent National Electoral Commission for the reenactment of the June 12th model of election.