Osun rerun: Omisore keeps PDP, APC waiting

Senator Iyiola Omisore

After meeting with both the People’s Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress in the run-up to Thursday’s rerun of the Osun State governorship poll, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, said Wednesday that his allegiance is with the people of the state.

Omisore came third in the Saturday poll, behind PDP’s Ademola Adeleke and APC’s Isiaka Oyetola. The poll was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission because the margin between the total number of votes polled by Adeleke and Oyetola was lesser than the number of invalid votes.

To emerge the winner in tomorrow’s rerun, leaders from PDP and APC, in recent days have courted Omisore, Although, Omisore stands no chance to be elected governor after Thursday’s supplementary poll, his support remains crucial in the rerun as there is a total of three polling units at stake for the APC and PDP in Ife, where Omisore hails from.

Officials of the PDP claimed the SDP candidate has agreed to work with the party. But Omisore said that account is false.

“I am telling my people that they should go with any political party that believes in what we in the SDP stand for,” Omisore said in a statement that did not indicate where his interest lies.

“I have already detailed how we planned to restore Osun to the path of good governance through the five thematic pillars in the manifesto I shared during the electioneering. I will not negotiate for personal gains and abandon my people.”

After meeting with Omisore on Monday, Nigeria’s Senate President and a PDP presidential aspirant Bukola Saraki said they “agreed to work together because our goals are the same. We all want good governance in Osun State. Over the next 24 hours, we will work out the details.”

APC also said it had “a successful meeting” with the Omisore in the state capital Osogbo on Tuesday.

Regardless, Omisore insisted that the pressure from both APC and PDP in the last 72 hours will not make him abandon “the practice of true democracy in Osun State.”

However, his refusal to publicly acknowledge which of the parties he will be partnering does not imply that he will not work with either of the two parties to ensure victory tomorrow.