Victory is yours, not mine —Aregbesola

Osun state Governor, Rauf Aregbesola has dedicated his victory in the just concluded governorship election to the people of the state.

Aregbesola, who attributed his victory to the mercy of God upon him, also dedicated the victory to the people of the state, saying the “victory is yours and not mine.”

Bemoaning the security cordon around the state, Aregbesola said: ”It was so sad and unfortunate that the contest that should be a normal, routine process was allowed to snowball into a needless virtual war by the Federal Government and the Peoples’ Democratic Party.

“Ordinarily, this should be a moment of joy and celebration consequent upon the hard earned triumph of the people’s will. However, this election shows that democracy is still gravely endangered in Nigeria. We witnessed gross abuse of power and of due process before, during, and even after the actual voting process.”

The governor, who bemoaned that Osun State was unduly militarised in an unprecedented manner through what he described as criminal intimidation and psychological assault on the people, said the election witnessed an abuse by security agencies which, according to him, amounted to corruption of their professional ethics and integrity.

“Our victory is due to the steadfastness and resolute determination of our people to assert and defend their rights. The PDP obviously did all it could in a most desperate manner to steal the people’s mandate,” he added.

Aregbesola stated further that “despite our victory, it is pertinent to condemn and also point out the fact that the number of accredited voters in most local governments was less than half of registered voters. Against this trend, it is curious that the bulk of the PDP candidate’s votes came from only four local governments, namely Ife Central, Ife East, Ife North and Ife South.

“This should always strengthen our resolve to ensure that as from now on, every vote must not only be counted in Osun but must count in this country as a whole. Nobody or party must ever exercise power unreasonably at any level except in accordance with the will of the people to whom sovereignty belongs.”