Despite facing a crisis of credibility, the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, cleared all available seats in the local government council election held on Saturday.
The reported death of one person in Ilasa could not be independently confirmed, as it was not clear if it was related to the conduct of the election.
The state police command and journalists in the state were barely involved in the election, with the police siding with the Attorney General of the Federation’s directive that the election is illegal.
An appeal court ruling reinstating the APC council bosses had threatened to stymie the election, but the state government rushed through a case at the state court and got a judgment directing the state electoral commission to go ahead.
Naija Daily News gathered that Saturday’s election witnessed a low turnout of voters, with voters mostly staying away in Osogbo and Olorunda local government area, as well as in Irewole, where Remi Abass, the reinstated council boss was killed last week.
At the time of this report on Sunday morning, there was uncertainty over the outcome, where the results were collated or declared, as the Osun State Electoral Commission office was still under siege by the state police command.
The presence of police was also heavy on major highways and roads in major towns, with roadblocks dotting the areas. But the police shunned the polling units, giving the ruling party unhindered access to the election, which was boycotted by the major opposition, APC.
However, reports from the state indicated that government appointees and PDP candidates mobilised their supporters, especially in Ede-South, home LGA of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
Other places including the Ife LGAs, Ede-North, Egbedore, Odo-Otin, Boripe, Ejigbo, Ifelodun, Irepodun, Orolu, Obokun, and Oriade also witnessed some degrees of turnouts.
A social media video showed some officials who were allegedly caught with election materials at Ejigbo, but it was not clear if they were electoral offices or political thugs.
The OSIEC Chairman, Mr Hashim Abioye, who said the election was peaceful, condemned the arrest of some of its polling officials across the local government in a bid to disrupt the election.
“I want to assure our people that those who are still awaiting the arrival of our electoral officials, I want to tell them that it was because the Police arrested some of our officials for committing no crime at all, against no lawful order of any court, but as it is we have deployed materials to those polling units because we have enough on the ground.”
But an APC chieftain, Jamiu Olawumi, who spoke on behalf of the Party Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, said, “What they did in Ife-Central local government is not an election. Some people were thumb-printing ballot papers for the electorates ditto for Egbedore where a school principal and a PDP member were snatching ballot boxes from one polling unit to another to stuff ballot papers into it.
“This is nothing but a charade and we are resolute in our decision in line with the Appeal Court judgement that there is no vacancy in the 30 local government council areas of the state”, he said.
Similarly, the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, Chairman, Adewale Adebayo said what happened in Osun was not an election but a lockdown.
“What we experience in Osun State today is not election but lockdown because people refuse to participate in the illegal poll except Ede town where only a few members of the 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.”
