There are concerns among stakeholders over the forthcoming Local Government Elections in Osun State planned to hold on February 22, 2025 following a judgement of the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, capital of Ondo State that purportedly reinstated sacked chairmen of the councils in the state.
The judgment of the appellate court has thrown political parties, lawyers and pundits into a state of confusion as those who had reacted to the court verdict gave varying interpretations to the judgement.
While the All Progressives Congress who are the Claimants in the Appeal Court suit argued that the justices of the court recalled the dissolved local government chairmen, validated the election that brought them into offices and also put on hold the planned February 22 polls, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission differed.
According to PDP and OSSIEC, the judgment did not reinstate the sacked council leaders who are members of the APC, but rather dismissed the application made by PDP.
The contentious judgement was delivered via zoom on Monday by the Court of Appeal in Akure.
The OSSIEC and PDP had argued that two separate Federal High Courts sitting in Osogbo in November, 2022, had nullified the election into the local councils in the state under the erstwhile administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the APC and sacked the elected officials.
Before the court’s sack, Governor Ademola Adeleke of the PDP, had dissolved the local government officers who were elected on October 15, 2022 under the platform of the APC.
Displeased, the APC approached the Appellate Court and sought redress.
Reacting to the judgement of the Appeal Court, the chairman of the Osun APC, Tajudeen Lawal, claimed the court reinstated the elected council chairmen and councillors “who were chased out of office by Governor Ademola Adeleke’s government over two years ago.”
He hailed the Justices for what he described as “a sound verdict delivered”, and described it as a welcome development which has further proven the ‘power of “light over darkness.”
Lawal, in a statement issued by the APC Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, argued that the implication of the judgment is that legal backing has been given to the “reinstated council officers to return to office with immediate effect.”
Similarly, the Legal Adviser of the APC in state, Adegoke Ogunsola, said the Court of Appeal judgement has returned the sacked council leaders to their respective offices, adding that the judgement also indicated that no local government election can be held in Osun as planned by OSSIEC.
Ogunsola cautioned the OSSIEC Chairman, Hashim Abioye to “refrain from any act capable of undermining the integrity and sanctity of the judiciary in respect of the unambiguous verdict unanimously delivered by the Justices of the Court of Appeal siting in Akure.”
Disagreeing with the APC, OSSIEC chairman, Hashim Abioye, while addressing a press conference, said the Appeal Court judgment did not reinstate the sacked chairmen and neither did it stop the commission from conducting the February 22 local government elections in the state.
Abioye noted specifically that the thirty local government areas in the state remain vacant till date as there is a substituting decision of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal against the APC and its purported candidates.
He further stressed that the election into councils would hold as planned.
But, APC counsel, Ogunsola, frowned at Abioye’s positions and warned him and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state to tread with cautions “as the judgment was cleared enough for the blind to read and deaf to hear.”
According to the legal luminary, “With the decision of the Court of Appeal, the terms of office of the Local Government Chairmen and Councilors elected on the platform of All Progressives Congress in 2022 are still extant and have not expired.”
“In the circumstance, no Local Government election can be held by the compromised OSIEC in February, 2025 to overreach the decision of the Court of Appeal and the preserved terms of the oppressed, denied and victimized Local Government Chairmen and Councilors who were duly elected in 2022,” he claimed.
In his remarks, Osun State Government explained that “there is no judgement restoring the Yes and No Local Government Chairmen back into the various Local Government Councils in Osun State.”
The state government, in a statement issued by Kolapo Alimi, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, asked 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.”
Alimi informed the citizens of the state that nothing would stop the forthcoming polls.
Naijaonpoint observations in the state revealed that there is power play among the ruling and opposition political parties.
Members of the parties have been going around the state dishing out different narratives. While the APC members are jibilating and threatening to resume offices, PDP loyalists are celebrating that the Appeal Court did not stop the forthcoming election, thus sensitising members of the public against apathy.
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