Osun LG poll: Only lockdown took place in Osun, not election – APM

From Lateef Dada, Osogbo

Osun State Chairman of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Hon Adewale Adebayo, has described the Saturday local government election as a “mere lockdown.”

According to him, an election only took place at Ede, the hometown of Governor Ademola Adeleke; he insisted that other areas experienced a lockdown.

Adebayo, who stated that the insistence of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) to go ahead with the election despite warnings by stakeholders and the court was to justify spending the money that had been allocated for the poll, described the action as fraud.

He said, “What we experience in Osun State today (Saturday) is not election but lockdown because people refuse to participate in the illegal poll except Ede town where only few members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) voted in some polling units of top political appointees of the governor.

“Our party is vindicated with this exercise of our earlier apprehension that OSIEC can never conduct any meaningful election since its chairman, Hashim Abioye is a card-carrying member of PDP and serves Adeleke as Special Adviser Legal matters and served as PDP caretaker Secretary.

“Osun State Government through OSSIEC only wasted billions of Naira on shadow election. Our members in Irewole, Isokan, Boripe, Ifelodun, Olorunda, Egbedore, Irepodun and Orolu amongst other places confirmed that elections were not held.

“In fact in Ede that they held illegal election, they claimed they concluded voting by 8:30am, the same Ede that voted till 9PM during the governorship election in 2022.

“Adeleke, Abioye and other members of the cabinets who had runaway from the state should make statewide broadcast to apologise to the resident for imposing lockdown on them,” Adebayo said.

But the Secretary to the State Government, Teslim Igbalaye, speaking with journalists at his house, confirmed that OSSIEC held a council election.

He said, “there was massive turnout of voters. I voted in Osogbo Ward 7, Unit 7, the turnout was massive. I believe that people have confidence in OSIEC and Osun State Government.”