Osun PDP will boycott local government election ― Party chairman

Osun chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday said that the party will boycott the local government elections fixed for October 15, 2022, by the state Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) in the state.

The caretaker committee chairman of the party, Dr Akindele Adekunle, who made the disclosure in a press conference in Osogbo, said the party is a dignified one and cannot associate itself with illegality that would at the end bring a barren result.

According to him, “the planned election, we want to maintain, is a futile effort that will certainly not stand and as we’ve mentioned severally, it is an attempt to plunge the state further into financial abjection and misery.

“Apart from the fact that the exercise will be in futility, the concern of the party is the huge amount government will expend on the exercise despite the paucity of funds in the coffers of the state.

“For us in the PDP, we have advised the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) not to allow itself to be used as a tool for illegality. We as a matter of fact sent a delegation to the commission to tutor and enlighten them on the consequences of turning themselves into prisoners of another man’s desperation.

“We have asked them to stop the Local Government Election being planned by the state government because the election conflicts completely with provisions of the law.

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“OSSIEC, acting ignorant of clear provisions of the law in their lack of courage to resist the lure of icings on the bread of this pure afront on the constitution of our nation, will surely backfire without mercy, because as we have stated, it is discretional criminality without gauging the attendant consequences.

“Jettisoning section 150 (1) & (2) of the electoral act especially, which makes it compulsory for a state electoral body to follow the provisions of the Electoral Act in the procedure regulating elections to the Local Government as sub-paragraph 3 of the section invalidates any election by a State electoral body in contravention of the procedure stipulated in the Electoral Act.

“OSSIEC is further reminded today that the Electoral Act in sub-paragraph 4 of section 150 makes it a criminal offence for any official of the state electoral body to breach the provision, as the such deliberate offender is liable to be prosecuted. The eagerness to waste state resources on this fruitless venture again makes it more criminal for members of OSSIEC.

“It is our belief and hope that OSSIEC members and other recalcitrant stakeholders take note of these warnings as being chronicled and properly noted for record purposes.”

Dr Akindele said despite the alarm raised by his party two weeks ago on the matter and the denial by OSIEC chairman, Governor Oyetola who has refused to conduct elections in the past four years insisted on the exercise because his government had soiled his hands in so much alleged financial infractions and monumental corruption.

He also frowned at the claim of the chairman of OSSIEC that he has legal backing to go ahead with the election.