The notice of election was given on 19th February, 2024. That means we gave a notice of one year, 360 days’ notice as required by the Electoral Act 2022 and as required by the Osun State Electoral Commission Law 2022.
The Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) and the Chief Returning Officer of the commission, Hashim Akintunde Abioye, discusses the local government elections that were recently conducted by his commission with Sam Nwaoko, a Nigerian Journalist. The two discuss the controversies that surrounded the elections.
Regarding the controversy that surrounded the election, Governor Ademola Adeleke had earlier stated that democracy is governed by the rule of law and that no one can assume the authority of the courts.
IREPORT247 recall that altercation started when some thugs purportedly affiliated with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) tried to seize control of the council, the dispute claimed six lives.
Osun State Government urged by Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), not to proceed with the planned Local Government election on February 22. The Labour Party’s election candidates’ forum also requested OSIEC to delay the poll in order to resolve the continuing legal crisis affecting the conduct of the election before their announcement of withdrawal from LG Poll.
In a statement released on 21st of February, the Force PRO, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said that the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) strongly requested the administration of Osun State to immediately delay the planned polls in order to protect the people and maintain national stability.
Meanwhile, Ademola Adeleke, the Governor of Osun State, has confirmed that the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) is successfully conducting the local government election that is scheduled to take place on 22nd of February. The assertion was made by the Governor while he was receiving a delegation of civil society coalition members who are in the state to monitor the elections for local government.
You conducted your local government elections as scheduled while some people said you shouldn’t have. Why did you go ahead with the elections and ignored the calls for its halt? Nwaoko questioned.
- The chairman responded saying, “I would not know the background of the propositions of those who felt that we ought not to have conducted the election because there was no legal hurdle against the conduct of the election. The election was built on a legitimate foundation which has constitutional and legal.
- “What I mean is that if you are talking about conduct of any election, one of the cardinal components is ‘notice of election’. The notice of election was given on 19th February, 2024. That means we gave a notice of one year, 360 days’ notice as required by the Electoral Act 2022 and as required by the Osun State Electoral Commission Law 2022.
- “The OSSIEC law 2022 provides for 360 days’ notice (Section 24 thereof), and Section 28 of the Electoral Act 2022 also provides for 360 days’ notice. So, in terms of notice we did not falter on the side of the law. From the day we published the notice of election up to the time of the election, we rolled out the schedule of activities and the timetable. We followed the schedule of activities one after the other without missing any of those steps.
- “These things are in stages and there are three critical stages in an election process: the notice of election, the time for submission of list of candidates by political parties – nomination; and publication of names of candidates. All these things are time-bound and they have definitive periods under the law. If you miss any of those steps, then the election would amount to naught. It will be nullified at the end of the day.
- “You can check our timetable, we never missed any of those steps and all these shenanigans came about two weeks before the election. Some people said they purportedly got a judgement which reinstated them to office and that as a result of that, there shouldn’t be an election.
- “They also said that if OSSIEC went ahead with the election, it would be contempt of court. There were threats here and there and all over but we did not succumb to any threat because we followed due process.It is worthy to note that there were no legal hurdles against the conduct of the election.
- “More so, there were vacancies in all the local government council areas of Osun State and the law allowed us to fill those vacancies. So, we were supported by law and there was a judgement of the court which mandated OSSIEC to go ahead to fill those vacancies. But before the judgement of the court which recognized vacancies and which mandated OSSIEC to conduct elections to fill the vacancies – that is our job, our constitutional responsibility – OSSIEC conducted election in 2022.
- “The election conducted by OSSIEC in 2022 was nullified by two separate judgements of the federal high court. OSSIEC appealed neither of the two judgements, which means that those two decisions were binding on OSSIEC. Some of those who were affected by the decisions appealed the two decisions, they succeeded in one of the appeals, but they did not succeed in the other.
- “So if they had succeeded in the other, we would have said that OSSIEC was right to have conducted the election but there is still a subsisting decision of the federal high court as affirmed by the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the appeal against that decision.
- “That was the decision of the Court of Appeal of 13th January, 2025 which affirmed the judgement of the federal high court in a matter filed by the APP that is: FHC/CS/OS/103-2022.If any political party is saying that that decision is not binding on them, it is binding on OSSIEC.
- “That means that there was no election in 2022 and you cannot build something on nothing. I am saying that the background of the election that we conducted and its foundation was that of legitimacy, constitutionality and legality, he concluded.
IREPORT247 recall that, on February 20, the Osun State All Progressives Congress (APC) informed the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) in a letter signed by Alao Olabisi Kamoru that the party will not be participating in the local government elections that are set to take place on Saturday, February 22, 2025. However, the reinstated chairmen of the APC returned to the local government secretariat on Monday after the elections was conducted and PDP has been declared as winner.
IREPORT247NEW also reported on Monday February 24, that a 72-hour resumption order was given by the reinstated chairmen to local government workers in Osun State, according to the All-Progressives Congress (APC) in the State, which has publicly publicized the information.
Workers in the local government were subjected to coercion by the APC, which claimed that any staff of the local government who did not show up for work would be terminated from their post.
Meanwhile, the Osun State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) reiterated that members will not resume their duties at the local governments until peace is restored to the councils.
Governor Ademola Adeleke also instructed freshly elected chairmen to defer resumption in order to avoid conflicts with those who are reportedly occupying the offices with the backing of the police.
Workers at the local government are confused about who to listen to between the state administration and the reinstated APC chairmen.
Watching the Osun State administration and local government workers deal with this intricate political and legal stalemate is everyone’s top priority.