Osun rerun: Saraki storms Ife, woos Omisore for PDP

Senate President Bukola Saraki met with Iyiola Omisore, governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the Osun governorship election, on Monday.

The meeting took place 24 hours after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had cried foul, asking INEC to declare Ademola Adeleke, its candidate, who secured the highest votes in the election as the winner.

In Saraki’s delegation to the SDP chieftain were Abiodun Olujimi, a senator from Ekiti state, and Doyin Okupe, director of media of Saraki’s presidential campaign.

A legislative source told TheCable that the meeting was part of the strategy to defeat the All progressives Congress (APC) in the rerun election scheduled for Thursday.

“Omisore has agreed to work together with Adeleke in the interest of The people of Osun state and Nigeria,” the source said.

Adeleke had polled 254,699, while his closest challenger, Isiaka Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had 254,345 votes.

With 128,049 votes, Omisore placed a distant third.

Thursday has been fixed for a rerun election in seven polling units across four local government areas — Orolu, Ife north, Ife south and Osogbo.

Although all the 48 political parties will partake in the exercise, the contest is between Adeleke and Oyetola, and Ife is a stronghold of Omisore.