Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) put its best foot forward, on Tuesday, when it deployed governor-elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on a peace shuttle to the residence of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in Osun State governorship election, Sen. Iyiola Omisore.
Faye’s visit came 24 hours after that of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who was on a similar mission to Omisore’s residence; to lobby for his support in tomorrow’s supplementary election.
The re-run will hold in seven polling units across four local government areas — Orolu, Ife North, Ife South and Osogbo. They are competing for 3, 498 votes Ife is Omisore’s stronghold.
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Saturday’s election inconclusive.
Ademola Adeleke of the PDP had polled 254,699, while his closest challenger, Isiaka Oyetola of the APC had 254,345 votes.
With 128,049 votes, Omisore placed a distant third.
There was no official communication on Faye’s visit.
Meanwhile, hearing in the certificate forgery suit filed by two APC chieftains against Adeleke, has been adjourned indefinitely by a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, sitting in Bwari, Abuja.
The case was adjourned sine die, by Justice Othman Musa, following non-appearance in court, of the plaintiffs as well as their counsel, Bankole Akomolafe.
The suit is principally seeking disqualification of Adeleke from participating in the governorship election on the grounds of not possessing requisite educational qualification.
APC chieftains, Wahab Raheem and Adam Omosalewa Habeeb had through their counsel; Akomolafe instituted the suit in Abuja, praying Justice Musa to disqualify Adeleke from contesting the governorship election on the grounds that he was not educated up to secondary school as he claimed in his nomination form, CF001.
They urged the court to prohibit PDP from nominating Adeleke as its candidate and INEC from recognizing Adeleke as a contestant in the election.
Speaking on the outcome of last Saturday’s Osun governorship election, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, faulted INEC for declaring it inconclusive.
He said the commission is “descending into the arena”.
He said this in Abuja, on Tuesday, when he received a joint high-level delegation of the International Republican Institute, IRI, and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Washington DC, USA, which was on a preliminary visit to Nigeria ahead of its planned Joint International Elections Observer Mission during the 2019 general elections.
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Meanwhile, as INEC prepares for the re-run election tomorrow, the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States foreign missions in Nigeria, have warned against vote-buying and every form of voters intimidation.
The three missions made their position known through a joint statement released by the information unit of the US embassy.
“We stress the importance that the re-run should take place without any violence, intimidation, or vote buying.
“Whoever wins the election after Thursday’s vote should be magnanimous in victory, and whoever loses should be gracious in defeat,” they implored.
