Osun Poll: Suspected APC Agents Allegedly Block Counting of Accord Votes at Oyetola’s Polling Unit

Suspected agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) allegedly prevented officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from counting votes cast for the Accord Party at the polling unit of former Osun State Governor and Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, during Saturday’s governorship election.

The incident occurred at the Lado Hill Polling Unit in Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State after voting had ended and officials began counting the ballots.

According to reports, no Accord Party agent was present at the polling unit when the votes were being counted.

An individual wearing an APC agent tag allegedly demanded that INEC officials void ballot papers cast for Accord, claiming that the instruction had come “from above.”

The presiding officer initially resisted the demand but reportedly relented after police officers and other security personnel moved away from the immediate area where the confrontation was taking place.

The APC agent and another unidentified individual subsequently obtained ink from electoral officials and allegedly thumb-printed the Accord ballot papers in what appeared to be an attempt to invalidate the votes.

The incident occurred after voters had left the polling unit, leaving electoral officials, security personnel and some party agents at the scene.

Before the alleged attempt to invalidate the Accord votes, the presiding officer announced results for several other political parties, including one vote for the African Democratic Party (ADP), five for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), two for the Action Alliance (AA) and 242 votes for the APC.

The reported incident has raised concerns over the protection of ballots and the conduct of party agents during the counting and result declaration stages of the election.

The allegations had not been independently established at the time of filing this report, and it was unclear whether INEC had taken any formal action concerning the disputed ballots.

The Osun governorship election featured 15 candidates, including Ademola Adeleke of Accord, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC and Najeem Salaam of the ADC.

Other candidates included Farinloye Olarenwaju of the Action Alliance, Esan Olajide of the African Action Congress, Adeagbo Opawoye of the African Democratic Party, Adesina Adeyemi-Doro of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Saliu Oyelami of the People’s Redemption Party.

The election is being closely watched amid calls for a transparent process and for results to accurately reflect the votes cast by eligible voters across the state.