The governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule has blamed the All Progressives Congress defeat in the just concluded off cycle governorship election in Osun State to what he described as the activities of “Abuja politicians”.
Diaspora Digital Media reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Saturday declared incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, the Accord candidate, winner of the election.
According to the INEC, Mr Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, who secured 444,815 votes.
But while addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Lafia, Mr Sule stressed the influence of incumbency in governorship elections.
He said the APC would have had a better chance of winning the election but for the intervention of some politicians from Abuja in the final days leading to the poll.
“APC lost partly because of the Abuja politicians. Because if not for some of these Abuja politicians, there was no way for APC to lose in Osun,” Mr Sule said.
He said the party’s defeat in Osun did not diminish what he described as the achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
“I’m not going to brag about anything that we are going to do, but what I can tell you is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done well,” the governor said.
Mr Sule added that the outcome of the Osun election demonstrated the strength of incumbency and the advantage enjoyed by sitting governors during elections.
“But what it means is that the power of a sitting governor is not something you can joke around. That’s the message that was sent actually in Osun,” he said.
The Nasarawa governor also dismissed celebrations by those who saw the APC’s defeat as evidence of declining popularity for the ruling party.
“For people who are celebrating, they don’t even understand what the hell they are celebrating,” he said.
“What they are celebrating is that the power of a sitting governor in Osun is what has stopped them from winning.”
