The negative role of the police to ignite the current face off made its advice a poison chocolate
Osun State has taken note of the Nigerian Police Force’s (NPF) security recommendations for the upcoming local government elections on Saturday, February 22, but has vehemently rejected them due to concerns about police bias and the rule of law.
In a statement issued by Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, the State’s Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, the Osun State government has rejected the police advise against the scheduled local government elections on Saturday, citing the alleged prejudice and partisanship within the police force.
The statement read, “The state government under His Excellency, Governor Ademola Adeleke has reviewed the advice and has come to the conclusion that the proposal from the force headquarters was biased, partisan and in contravention of democratic tenets.
“The pretence of the Service to be serving public good while actually promoting illegality of the APC reinforces our rejection of a Greek gift.
“From the beginning of this face off, the police has breached best practices by its open support for the All Progressive Congress, a party that is pushing for illegality through a non- existing court order.
“The whole world knows how the police actively aided the APC to enforce a reinstatement order that was never issued by any court of law.
“A law enforcement agency has suddenly become a partisan wing of a political party, the APC, thereby losing all toga of a fair law agency.
“The negative role of the police to ignite the current face off made its advice a poison chocolate.
“Beyond the above, we also call the attention of the police to the court judgment of today.
“It contains three orders which affirm vacancies in Osun councils by authenticating the sacking of the APC council chieftains directed the police and other security agencies to provide security for the election and gave go ahead to fresh LG elections by Saturday 22nd.
“Instead of the police to obey court order, the service is regrettably pursuing its partisan line by actively working against rule of law as espoused by today’s court ruling.
“If the police choses to disobey court orders, the Osun state government will not go against rule of law, hence the decision of the state government to support the state electoral commission to conduct a credible free and fair elections tomorrow.
“We thank the police for their advice. We respectfully turned down the request while we urge Osun voters to peacefully exercise their voting rights on Saturday.”