The leadership of Labour Party in Osun State has announced the party’s withdrawal from the Saturday’s local government election in the state.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, Labour Party chairman, Adebayo Bello, said the local government election has generated tension and that it would not put the lives of members snd supporters of the party in jeopardy.
The party suggested that the Osun State Electoral Commission should postpone the election for two months to allow tension to douse.
“This is decision of our championship candidates because they are the one investing much on this election. We can’t people put the lives of our supporters at risk, more especially the party agents. Why we are advising the government and OSSIEC, the electoral umpire to shift the election either one or two months just to resolve the legal crisis lingering and the party is fully in support of their (party candidates) decisions,” he said.
The Chairmanship candidate of Labour Party, Osogbo, Jimoh Babalola, said, “As we are aware, there should be election tomorrow and we have prepared for election. As a matter of fact, we are in high spirit for election but the recent event make us to think otherwise. We are aware of the crisis in local government secretariats. We still want to participate in election but we have seen traces that the election might be disrupted and lives may be risk and we don’t want to put lives of our people in jeopardy, we are suspicious about the security for tomorrow.
“Only today around 4pm this evening, we are at the OSSIEC office to ask for tags for our party agents, but there is nobody on ground to attend to us. We called a staff of OSSIEC, Mr Adelowo for about 3 times on phone, telling us to wait till 4pm.
“We want the election to be postponed, not cancelled, so that the crisis at the local government would be resolved. With this situation, we cannot tell our people to come out and vote to put their lives at risk because we want to win election.”
