Osun LG debacle: PDP asks IGP to hold APC responsible for violence

…says sacked chairmen, councilors can’t return to office, Osun Govt lays claim to High Court judgement

By Tunde Opalana

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to hold the All Progressives Congress (APC) responsible for breakdown of law and order, violence which may resort to killings in Osun State.

The call for cautions by the party was consequent upon clash across some local governments in the state on Monday as former chairmen and councillors in the state attempted forceful entrant into the local government secretariats to enforce a purported restoration order by the court.

Supporters of both parties reportedly clashed in Olorunda, Egbedore, Atakumosa, Aiyedire, Boripe and Ifelodun local government areas as members of the PDP posed tried to resist forceful entry by the sacked Osun State Local Government Chairmen and Councilors and party loyalists.

Reacting to the ugly development, the PDP said the former council officers should to perish the thought of forcing themselves back into office “as such will amount to a futile venture with dire consequences.”

The PDP also charged the APC to accept the reality and end its “resort to self-help, misrepresentations, vituperations, violence and killing with the aim to trigger crisis and destabilize the State, having realized that it has irredeemably lost.”

The PDP in a statement Monday by its national spokesperson, Him. Debo Ologunagba asserter that the fate of the ousted Local Government Chairmen and Councilors was sealed by the Judgment of the Court to Appeal “which nullified the unconstitutional attempt by the then Governor Gboyega Oyetola to illegally plant them as Local Government officers in the guise of an election.”

The statement read “having been roundly rejected by the people of Osun State in the Saturday, July 16, 2022, governorship election, the then Governor Oyetola and the APC ought to have known that attempting to side-step the laws and manipulate the process to illegally foist APC members and apologists as Local Government Chairmen and Counselors was an exercise in futility which was bound to fail ultimately.

“The APC is the architect of its misfortune. It should have known that disregarding and refusing to comply with the provisions of the Constitution and the Osun State Local Government Election Laws with respect to the requirement on notices, processes and procedures of conducting local government election is destined to be fatal and irreparable.

“We counsel the Osun State APC to stop playing to the gallery by trying to bring in the exulted office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria into disrepute by hopelessly dropping the President’s name at public spaces in their desperate but pathetic and unrealizable attempt to garner undeserved sympathy.

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“The APC should note that our nation operates a federal system of government with clearly entrenched devolution of powers among the federating units as well as the various sub-national tiers of government. It should therefore desist from the fruitless attempt to drag President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Federal Government into the issue of local government election which, under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), is within the purview of the State and has no connection whatsoever with the Federal Government.

“If the APC believes that it is truly popular in Osun State as it claims, it should rather get ready for election as already scheduled by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) instead of holding unto an imaginary strand of straw and instigating violence and killings in the State.

“Our Party strongly condemns the violence and killing of some youths today by APC thugs and calls on the Inspector General of Police to hold APC leaders in Osun State responsible and bring them to book for this heinous crime.”

The party called on the people of Osun State to remain calm, law-abiding and get ready for the Local Government Election as they continue to support Governor Ademola Adeleke in his outstanding delivery of monumental life-enhancing projects and programs in the State.

Recall that he election into the LG councils across Osun State held on 15th October, 2022 pursuant to notice of election issued on the 15/8/2022 was declared unconstitutional, invalid, null and void by the judgement of the Federal Appeal Court on Monday February 10,2025 for violation of the constitution and breach of sections 28,29,32,98 and 150 of Electoral Act 2022.

The court dismissed the originating summons filed by the PDP to challenge the validity of the election held on the ground that the notice of the election had not been published by OSSIEC before the suit was filed.

Dismissing the judgement as no threat to the coming council polls, Osun State government said the simple implication of the judgement “is that the PDP never filed any case to challenge the validity of that election.

“However, there’s another suit filed by the Action Peoples Party (APP) against INEC, OSSIEC, APM Babarinde Nurudeen Idowu, APGA, APC and Prince Gboyega Famodum which challenged the validity of the local government election held on the 15th of October,2022.

“In its judgement in the Suit No FHC/OS/CS/103/22, the Federal High Court nullified the local govt election conducted by OSSIEC on 15th of Oct.2022 and made the following clear and positive consequential orders:

“The election into the LG councils across Osun State held on 15th October, 2022 pursuant to notice of election issued on the 15/8/2022 is hereby declared unconstitutional, invalid, null and void for violation of the constitution and breach of sections 28,29,32,98 and 150 of Electoral Act 2022.

“All persons or individuals occupying offices in the state local government councils by virtue of the said election are accordingly sacked from holding such offices; Sections 25 and 26 of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission Law 2022 having been enacted in contravention of paragraph 12 of the part II,second schedule to the Constitution and being inconsistent with sections 29 and 32 of the Electoral Act 2022 are hereby struck down.”

Shedding more light, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi,
Osun State Commissioner, Information and Public Enlightenment said “the judgement above, which was delivered by the Federal High Court on 30th day of November 2022 by Hon.Justice N.Ayo Emmanuel of the Osogbo Federal High Court was appealed against with the Appeal No CA/AK/226M/2024. and the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgement in the ruling delivered on 13th January, 2025.

“Taking the above positions into consideration, the only valid judgement subsisting as at today is the order of the court which nullified the election conducted as enunciated above.

“Therefore, we need to inform the entire citizens of Osun State, most especially, the Security Operatives and Heads of Local Government Administrations( HLA’s) to take note of the fact that, there is no judgement restoring the Yes and No Local Government Chairmen back into the various Local Government Councils in Osun State.

“Consequently, we urge the security operatives to arrest and prosecute anybody, no matter how highly placed, who may want to disrupt the current peace being enjoyed in our dear state.

“We equally, urge all our HLAs to ensure that no intruder or political thug is allowed into the premises of any of our local governments in the state.

“Therefore, anybody who makes an attempt to gain entry into any of the council secretariats should be reported to the security agencies.

“Finally, we want to use this medium to inform the citizens of Osun State that barring any unforeseen circumstance, the local government election scheduled for 22nd of February 2025 will go on as planned.