The Campaign Council for the reelection of Governor Ademola Adeleke called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to avoid recurrence of the alleged technical glitches and other challenges that characterised the recently concluded Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Ekiti governorship polls during the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Osun State.
The Director-General of The Imole Campaign Council (TICC), Senator Kamarudeen Olalere Oyewumi, who made the call on Monday, said the position of Council was informed by reports of accredited election observers, publicly-available evidence, independent reviews by its surveillance team, and experiences shared by voters.
Oyewumi stated that TICC team had identified the challenges, including, among others, deployment of insufficient ballot papers, inadequate Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, distribution of PVCs to suspected mercenary voters, and alleged distribution of already thumb-printed ballot papers.
According to him, for eligible voters not to lose confidence in the credibility of August 15 polls in Osun State, INEC must, as a matter of urgency, address the potential challenges that may reoccure during the exercise.
Oyewumi stated, “We want to draw the attention of INEC, security agencies, election observers, political stakeholders and the general public to a number of lapses observed in most of the recently conducted elections such as the 2026 FCT Area Council Election, Ekiti State 2026 Governorship Election, and the June 20 2026 bye-elections conducted in Enugu, Nasarawa, Ondo, Rivers, Kano, and Kebbi States—and why those lapses must not be allowed to reoccur in the forthcoming Osun 2026 Governorship Election scheduled for Saturday, 15th August, 2026.
“The Imole Campaign Council (TICC) firmly believes that elections derive their legitimacy from public confidence. Once citizens begin to lose faith in the integrity of the electoral process, democracy itself becomes endangered. It is against this background that we consider it a patriotic duty to raise these concerns now, while there is still sufficient time for the electoral umpire to address them.”
Oyewumi recalled that beyond the immediate disruption to voting, the FCT experience revealed a pattern of disenfranchisement that flows directly from poor planning and operational execution, stressing that ballot papers and key materials were absent or insufficient at the scheduled opening of polls.
He added that one of the most disturbing developments in recent off-cycle and bye-elections conducted by INEC in Ogun, Oyo, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Kano, Ekiti states, etc., was the widely circulated viral video showing individuals suspected to be mercenary voters allegedly receiving Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) shortly before voting.
Oyewumi, therefore, expressed concern that INEC had failed to either provide any satisfactory explanation or debunk the authenticity of the incident outright.
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