The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has congratulated Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, on his victory in Saturday’s governorship election, describing the outcome as a victory for democracy and the people of the state.
The party, however, demanded an explanation from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the reported interruption in the uploading of polling unit results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the election.
In a statement issued on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said Adeleke’s victory was significant because it demonstrated that the collective will of voters could prevail despite what it described as the deployment of “overwhelming forces of intimidation and manipulation.”
The party also commended opposition politicians and supporters who, according to it, worked together to secure the victory.
“This election has once again demonstrated a simple but powerful truth: when a people make up their minds about the future they want, there is a limit to what intimidation, money and the machinery of government can accomplish against their collective will,” the ADC said.
It added that the Osun election had shown that “no political machine is greater than a determined electorate” when citizens remained committed to exercising their democratic rights.
According to the party, the outcome was particularly significant given the scale of political mobilisation by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the election.
“The APC’s entire political machine descended on one of the smallest states in Nigeria, with more than 30 state governors leading the invasion. The Senate President was there.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives was there.
Hundreds of federal and state legislators and other senior government officials were mobilised from across the federation,” the statement said.
The ADC claimed that the mobilisation was aimed at helping President Bola Tinubu’s party secure Osun State, which it said the APC intended to use as an indication of what Nigerians should expect in the 2027 general elections.
“They wanted to make Osun an example of what we should expect in 2027. What they got instead was a chastening lesson that, in a democracy, you may control the government and all the forces it commands, but you cannot control the people’s minds or obtain their consent by force,” the party said.
It also alleged that the heavy deployment of security personnel, coupled with reported incidents of arrests and intimidation, failed to deter voters.
“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,” the statement added.
The party said the election had reinforced its belief that Nigerians could use the ballot box to peacefully challenge bad governance.
However, the party said it could not celebrate the election result without seeking clarification on the alleged interruption in the uploading of results to the IReV portal.
The ADC claimed that its intelligence indicated that INEC was directed at about 8pm on election night to halt the uploading of results when it became apparent that the APC was losing.
“ADC hereby demands a comprehensive explanation from the Independent National Electoral Commission regarding the observed interruption in the uploading of election results to the IReV portal for nearly four hours on election night,” the party said.
The opposition party further alleged that the interruption raised concerns about a possible attempt to interfere with the election results or render the process inconclusive.
“While we await INEC’s explanation, ADC has reasonable grounds to believe that an attempt was made by the ruling party to tamper with the results of the election and to render the process, at least, inconclusive,” it alleged.
The party attributed the eventual transparency of the process, in part, to what it described as timely alarms raised by Governor Adeleke, election monitors and observers.
It warned that the alleged incident should not be ignored because of the celebration surrounding Adeleke’s victory, arguing that it could provide lessons for the 2027 general elections.
“ADC believes that this attempted heist is indicative of what the APC is capable of doing in the coming general elections.
“This is why INEC must give a full account of what happened in those few critical hours,” the party said.
The ADC also cautioned against interpreting the APC’s defeat as evidence that the ruling party would automatically embrace opposition victories in future elections.
“What is clear is this: APC will not surrender power easily unless they are confronted with inevitability as it happened in Osun,” the party declared.
It accused the ruling party of attempting to justify its actions under President Tinubu’s reported “all is fair in politics” doctrine.
The ADC said the Osun election nevertheless demonstrated the limits of governmental power in a democratic contest.
“A government may deploy power everywhere, but it cannot deploy it inside the ballot booth,” the party said.
The ADC concluded by declaring that the Osun result represented a warning to the APC and a demonstration of the ability of voters and opposition forces to resist political pressure through the ballot.
“The time to end APC bad governance has come,” the party declared.
