About two weeks to Saturday, February 22, 2025 that was slated for the just concluded local government election, the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission had announced its full readiness to conduct the poll. The commission embarked on awareness in the media, sensitising members of the public on the need to participate in the exercise.
Few days to the election, OSSIEC, chaired by a lawyer, Hashim Abioye, assembled all leaders of political parties in the state, National Orientation Agency, Youth Council of Nigeria at the commission’s headquarters in Osogbo, displayed voting materials including ballot boxes, cubicles, and ballot papers for the stakeholders to see.
The commission had also trained its permanent and ad-hoc staff ahead of the election with the support of a faith-based organisation, Justice and Peace Makers Centre, Osogbo. Stakeholders passed a vote of confidence on the commission’s leadership and commended its level of preparedness.
The chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council in the state, Victor Akande, had during the meeting, disclosed that all the 18 political parties in the state would be participating in the exercise.
Other stakeholders including religious leaders and civil society organisations hailed OSSIEC’s planning and urged residents who are 18 and above to troop out and exercise their franchise.
Abioye, while speaking at the display of sensitive election materials, said the commission was ready to conduct a transparent, credible, peaceful and acceptable election.
However, events started turning sour for the commission two days to the poll after the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, warned the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke and the state electoral commission against proceeding with the exercise.
At this juncture, the commission was apparently rattled and thrown into confusion and pressure. Abioye and other officials of OSSIEC deserted the headquarters leaving media practitioners and some observer groups who had wanted to collect their accredited tags and apron for the monitoring of the election stranded.
THE POINT gathered that the commission relocated its operations to the State Government House to evade arrest by some security operatives allegedly sent by the Inspector General of Police who had advised against the conduct of the poll.
Hurriedly, the state government last Friday morning, obtained an enrollment order from one of the State High Courts sitting in Ilesa to legitimise the election in the light of a Court of Appeal judgement that reportedly reinstated the sacked chairmen and councillors elected in 2022 under the platform of the major opposition All Progressives Congress.
Governor Adeleke and OSSIEC ignored warnings and proceeded with the controversial poll. But, APC withdrew its participation from the election while candidates of the Labour Party advised OSSIEC to postpone the poll.
On D-Day (Saturday), as early as 7:30am, most journalists, even without accredited tags, stormed major towns in the state to cover the exercise.
THE POINT reported that as at 7:45am, electoral officials and voters seen at many polling units visited in Ede and its environs claimed that they had finished voting and had counted the ballots.
This came as several polling units visited in Osogbo, Ile-Ife, Iwo, Ilesa, among others did not experience voting.
For the areas where the election took place, the exercise did not go beyond two hours even as many voters refused to participate for fear of being attacked. There were no voters list in many of the units visited and not even a single police operative was seen at the polling units.
There were reports in Ile-Ife and Osogbo that some armed policemen dispersed electoral officials and voters.
Displeased by the turn of events, a major observer group in the process, JDPMC, announced its withdrawal from the election and asked its observers to recuse themselves.
The General Coordinator of the faith-based organisation, Rev Fr Peter Akinkunmi, said the “legal lock jam” including the withdrawal of police that greeted the exercise, made OSSIEC inaccessible for information, thus causing irregularities.
Notwithstanding, Governor Adeleke, other government functionaries and PDP leaders who participated in the election, hailed the process as peaceful and credible.
After voting, Adeleke even commended President Bola Tinubu for allowing rule of law to prevail and ensuring peaceful conduct of the poll.
The OSSIEC chairman, on Saturday night, addressed selected journalists in a live broadcast reportedly held at Government House, and declared that all the candidates of the PDP won in all the chairmanship and councillorship seats.
According to Abioye, “To this effect, by the power conferred on me as the chief returning officer of OSSIEC, I hereby declare them as duly elected chairman of their respective LGA.”
He noted that the LGA election has been successfully concluded in compliance with constitutional provisions, extant laws, regulations and guidelines.
“From the available results as obtained from the field, the candidates of the PDP in 332 wards emerged as winners, and I as the chief returning officer of the commission hereby return every one of them as duly elected councillors of their wards.
“The election was conducted to fill the existing vacancies in 332 wards in the state and 30 LGAs of the state.”
He affirmed that the elections were contested by 18 political parties and the results have been submitted to the commission.
Explaining why he and other staff left the commission’s headquarters, Abioye claimed that operatives of the Nigeria Police Force arrested staff of the commission who were on election duty across the state and sealed the office.
Abioye maintained that the arrest of the officials conveying the materials was responsible for the late arrival of materials, adding that new materials were later deployed in the affected areas.
He apologised to media practitioners who did not get their accreditation tags, saying it was due to the invasion of the headquarters by the police.
However, the APC and the Allied Peoples Movement stated that no election took place in the state.
The state chapter of the APC commended the people of the state for “boycotting the illegal local government council elections conducted by the partisan OSSIEC.”
The party expressed excitement with the massive boycott of the elections across the 30 local government areas and Modakeke Area Office, stating the reaction of the residents to the charade promoted by the government is a testimony that the people of the state are law-abiding, democratic and decent for standing with the rule of law.
Similarly, the Osun State Chairman of the APM, Adewale Adebayo, berated the OSSIEC, claiming that there was no election anywhere in the state except in Ede, the hometown of Governor Adeleke.
He said that OSIEC’s insistence on conducting the poll was to justify allocated money, describing the action as fraud.
Adebayo said his members in various towns confirmed that elections were not held in their areas.
Meanwhile, all the elected council officials were sworn-in and issued certificates of return with a directive from the state governor to stay away from the local government secretariats in order to avoid clashing, again, with the APC chairmen who had taken over the government offices.
Also, a chieftain of the APC, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has described the local government election held in Osun on Saturday as a mere waste of taxpayers’ money.
Oyintiloye, a member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council made the remarks while speaking with newsmen on Tuesday in Osogbo.
He said that since the Court of Appeal, Akure, in its judgement, reinstated the sacked APC council chairmen, the conduct of the election was illegal and an exercise in futility.
The APC chieftain said that at the appropriate time, the state government would be asked to account for the money wasted on the election.
Oyintiloye, however, appealed to the Federal Government to release the monthly local government allocation to the reinstated party chairmen in the state.
He said that the allocation would allow the chairmen to fast- track development, which had been neglected at the grassroots since their purported sack in 2022.
Oyintiloye said that since the chairmen had lost considerable time, with less than nine months left to end their tenure, the timely release of the allocation would enable them to achieve fast developmental projects at the grassroots.
Oyintiloye, a former lawmaker, also commended the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, for displaying a high level of professionalism in handling security issues and abuse of power in the state.
According to him, since 2022, when the chairmen were sacked, there has been no tangible development at the grassroots in the state.
“I want to appeal to the Federal Government to start releasing the monthly allocation to the APC reinstated council chairmen in the state as from this month.
“The chairmen were unable to work since 2022 when they were sacked, but now that the Court of Appeal has reinstated them, the allocation should be released to them.
“This is the time for people at the grassroots to feel the impact of a government which had been neglected since 2022.
“I want to also commend the Inspector General of Police for ensuring peace in the state and the way he approached the security challenges professionally,” he said
Oyintiloye commended the council chairmen for resuming in their various councils despite intimidation and harassment by the People’s Democratic Party.
He, however, urged the local government staff to resume back to work, saying there is enough security in place for them to contribute their quota as expected of them.
He said the staff resumption would allow the chairmen to settle down to deliver dividends of democracy that people at the grassroots had been yearning for.
