An Osun State High Court sitting in Osogbo on Friday ordered the State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) to conduct the local government election scheduled for Saturday, February 22, 2025.
This was as Governor Ademola Adeleke on Friday, insisted that the local government election scheduled for Saturday will be held unfailingly under the supervision of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC).
The Governor made the assertion while receiving a delegation of civil society coalition who are in the state to monitor the local government elections.
In an enrollment order brought before Justice A. Aderigbigbe by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against OSIEC and Its Chairman, Hashim Abioye, the court ruled that there was vacancy in the 30 local government areas of the state as held by the judgment of the Federal High Court.
The court stated that the election conducted by the first defendant on 15th October, 2022, had been invalidated, nullified and voided, and the purported elected officials produced by the purported election had been sacked by the Federal High Court.
The court further directed and compelled all the security agencies, comprising the Nigeria Police, the Nigeria Army, the Department of State Security Services (DSS), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Amotekun Corps, the Vigilante group among others in the state to provide adequate security during and after the election.
Meanwhile, the Police said they received credible intelligence indicating a high likelihood of violence and significant security threats should the planned elections proceed.
The Police also averred that joint intelligence gathering revealed that various groups, including political elements and other interested parties, were mobilising to instigate unrest, disrupt public peace, and undermine the democratic order.
A statement by Force Spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, stressed that given this imminent threat to security, the Police strongly advised the Osun State Government to suspend the planned elections forthwith in the interest of public safety and national stability.
According to him, the Force has assessed the current security landscape and determined that proceeding with the elections under these volatile conditions could escalate into widespread unrest, endangering lives and property.
“The Nigeria Police Force, in collaboration with other security agencies, is fully prepared to take decisive action to prevent any breakdown of law and order.
“However, to avert unnecessary confrontation and safeguard the democratic process, it is in the best interest of all stakeholders that the elections be stand down.
“Beyond the security concerns, it is also imperative to consider the legal clarification by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice on the extant judicial pronouncements concerning Local Government administration in Osun State with regards to the Court of Appeal judgment delivered on the 22nd of February 2025 which stands to have nullified the Federal High Court’s previous decision and reinforces the position that the elections, as presently contemplated, lack a firm legal foundation,” he said.
Adejobi noted that in light of the combination of heightened security threats and the existing legal complexities, the Police advises the Osun State Government to reconsider and suspend the planned elections immediately.
However, Governor Adeleke told the delegation of civil society that Osun voters were prepared to exercise their voting rights today even as he expressed satisfaction with the level of preparation by the electoral body.
“Our people are prepared for elections tomorrow (today). They yearn to have their choices as chairmen and councilors. OSSIEC has also done marvelous preparatory job according to reports at my disposal. Several political parties are participating and I believe there will be a level playing ground for all to test their popularity with the masses”, the Governor told the visiting activists.
On the controversy over the election, the Governor asserted that democracy is governed by rule of law and that nobody can assume the authority of the courts.
“My advice to all parties including local and national stakeholders is to abide by democratic norms. As for me and my people, we stand by the rule of law, not illegal self- help.
“Election is going to hold and the outcome will be a fast tracked development at the local level. I urge our people to remain peaceful. Osun is a truly peaceful state,” Adeleke noted.
Adeleke ordered restriction of vehicular movement from 5am to 5pm today across Osun State.
Spokesperson to Adeleke, Mallam Olawale Rasheed in a statement urged the people of the State to disregard fake news about the cancellation of the election.
Adeleke, who reiterated his commitment to peace and security said the movement restriction was necessary to prevent importation of hoodlums into the state amidst local elections.
He, therefore, directed security agencies to enforce the restriction and only allow voters and accredited media and civil society organisations for the continued peace and security of Osun State.
But the Osun State chapter of All Progressive Congress (APC) berated the State chapter of the PDP over a purported injunction granted by a State High Court sitting in Ilesa calling on security agents to supervise the “illegal” local government election slated for today.
In a statement by the Chairman of APC in Osun State, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, described as “fake and inglorious”, the court interim order which he dismissed as “a joke taken too far”.
He contended that Nigerian statutes do not prescribe that a lower court should override an Appeal court judgment.
Lawal counseled Governor Adeleke to reduce the incidents of always appearing as being led by ignoramus who are working to always milk him with frivolity.
The APC Chairman expressed shock that a court could yield its courtroom for absurdity and social retrogression all because of being influenced by the executive who lacks respect for the rule of law.
APC in Osun therefore called for firmness with which the security agents had been enforcing the February 10, 2025 Court of Appeal judgment that reinstated the sacked local government political functionaries by Governor Adeleke in 2022.
However, members and supporters of the Osun State chapter of the PDP were told to troop out today and exercise their civic right and vote in the scheduled local government election.
The party also condemned in strong terms, the unfortunate comment attributed to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, over the scheduled local government election, describing it as another plot by President Tinubu’s led APC administration in Nigeria to destabilise Osun State as a form of vengeance and vendetta against the peace loving people who voted APC out of the State in 2022.
A statement by the media office of the PDP signed by Hon Sunday Bisi, Osun State PDP Chairman described election as fundamental right of the citizens in constitutional democracy and could not be tied to the fair-weather whims of a “vexed individual” like the AGF, Lateef Fagbemi.
According to him “Nigerians would recall, Lateef Fagbemi led the legal team of the defeated former governor Gboyega Oyetola in the attendant legal tussle following the woeful loss of the latter in the July 16, 2022 governorship election in Osun State, which ended in shame for Fagbemi and his team of rabble rousers.
“It is therefore not surprising for the same individual attempting to foist his partisan opinion on the state, obviously taking side with members of his political party, APC, with whom he lost together up to Supreme Court.”
The PDP reckoned that Fagbemi was not a court of law, and that having led the team of lawyers that lost the 2022 Osun governorship election case, his opinion therefore, cannot be taken and regarded as flawless, as such opinion in several instances, have been thrown away many times by judges of various courts of competent jurisdiction
The former Caretaker Chairman of the PDP in Osun State, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, also alleged that the party had uncovered a sinister plot to use hoodlums clothed in Police uniforms to thwart the conduct of the local government election.
But in a swift response, Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for Akindele’s arrest by security operatives.
APC expressed its disappointment with Adekunle, who is the Special Adviser to Governor Adeleke on Primary Healthcare over his unsubstantiated allegation of bringing in fake police against the opposition to disrupt the designation-for-abortion local government council election being organised by the State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) against the court order.
“It is quite disturbing to note that the Police are aiding this brazen threat to peace and safety of Osun people, because we learnt that the tactical squad deployed from Abuja is just a cover for the thugs to unleash violence without check,” he added.
“The fact of the matter is that any contemplation of holding any local government council election in Osun State on Saturday is an aberration and an impossibility as there are no vacancies in the local government council areas across the state by virtue of the penultimate Monday’s judgment of the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, that reinstated the hitherto sacked the APC local government council chairmen and councilors.”
But a civil society organisation (CSO), under the aegis of Osun Democrats for Democracy, lampooned Fagbemi, for assuming the role of a court over the Osun Local Government crisis.
The group specifically said that “the AGF is not a court of law thus, not in a position to stop election nor interpret court rulings.
The CSO in a statement signed by Adewale Fowora, Legal Adviser, declared that Fagbemi as a former legal counsel to the former Osun State governor and now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Oyetola, was clearly an interested party in the ongoing political crisis in the state and should therefore excuse himself.
The group therefore urged the Osun State government to go ahead with the scheduled Local Government election, stressing that Fagbemi’s statement was a political action that has no foundation in law.
