The African Democratic Congress, ADC, says the victory of the Accord Party’s governorship candidate, Governor Ademola Adeleke, in the just-concluded election is a victory for democracy, despite what it described as overwhelming intimidation and the massive deployment of state power by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The opposition party was reacting to Adeleke’s emergence as the winner on Saturday through a statement by its National Spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, who commended the people of Osun and opposition leaders who worked together to defeat the ruling party, even as some voters allegedly sold their votes to the APC.
The ADC also asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to explain why the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV, was halted for nearly four hours on election night, saying Nigerians deserve to know who directed the electoral commission to stop uploading the results when it became clear that the APC was losing.
Abdullahi expressed disappointment over what he described as the extraordinary resources deployed by the APC to Osun and its entire political machinery, which descended on one of the smallest states in Nigeria. He said more than 30 state governors led the mobilisation, alongside the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas; hundreds of federal and state legislators; and other senior government officials from across the federation, in what he described as an unprecedented show of sycophancy aimed at capturing Osun for President Bola Tinubu.
The ADC alleged that there were plans to make Osun an example of what should be expected in 2027, but what the ruling party got instead was a chastening lesson that, in a democracy, a party may control the government and all the forces it commands, but it cannot control the people’s minds or obtain their consent by force.
The opposition party also added that the sheer scale of security deployment could easily have discouraged ordinary citizens from exercising their democratic rights, but it only succeeded in making the people more determined, even as they faced what it described as instigated violence, arrests and intimidation. It noted that no deployment is large enough to defeat a people who have lost their fear.
The ADC reminded the APC that Osun’s rejection of the ruling party is a clear indication that the rejection of bad leadership is gathering momentum, saying citizens can stop enduring bad leadership and hardship as a permanent national condition by expressing their will through the ballot box.
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Editor..Ada Ononye
