Voting concluded across Osun State on Saturday in a closely watched governorship election, with the Independent National Electoral Commission uploading results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) as sorting and counting continued at polling units.
More than 1.9 million registered voters were eligible to cast ballots in a contest widely viewed as a two-horse race between incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party and Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, with Najeem Salaam of the ADC also in the field. Fourteen parties fielded candidates after both the PDP and Labour Party failed to present nominees; two other candidates had withdrawn earlier in the week and endorsed Adeleke.
The election was not without incident. Governor Adeleke alleged that the PDP chairman in the state was arrested at his residence in Ilesa shortly after voting, calling it an attempt to intimidate his supporters, while ADC candidate Najeem Salaam was reportedly whisked away by security operatives after violence broke out at his polling unit in Ejigbo. As of the latest count, INEC had uploaded results from more than 60 percent of the state's 3,763 polling units to IReV, with final collation continuing at the state level.