Osun LG Election: OSSIEC chair alleges arrest of commission's officials

The Chairperson of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC), Hashim Abioye, has condemned the arrest of some of his officials by the police.

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In a 1:49 minutes video, posted on the commission’s official X handle, Mr Abioye alleged that the officials were arrested on their way to the polling units to perform their duties.

He said the arrest delayed the commencement of the election and denied some voters the opportunity to vote at the appropriate time.

He, however, said despite the arrest, the exercise has been smooth and peaceful.

“Well, so far so good. The reports have been positive and the conduct has been very very smooth and peaceful. As it is, the false alarm raised by the police….. so everywhere is calm. The only thing is that some of the areas in which materials are supposed to have arrived and for the electorates, for voters to cast their votes, we had reports of police arresting our officials.

“I don’t know the order, on whose order that was made because there is no court that made any order to have warranted the arrest of our officials. I want to assure people that for those who are still awaiting the arrival of our officials, I want to tell them that it’s because the police arrested some of our officials for committing no crime at all, for going against no lawful order of any court.

“But as it is, we have deployed the materials to those polling units because we have enough on ground. So as I’m talking to you now, voting is ongoing in those places.”

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Mr Abioye also said the police sealed off the commission’s office, the reason for the limited supply of tags and jackets for journalists accredited for the exercise.

“And for people in the media communities, I want to apologise for the inadequacy in the tags and the jacket because we have enough. I can assure you that we have enough. But the police sealed off our office and that was not warranted at all. All this we will sort out at the end of the day,” he said.

Spokesperson for the Osun State Police Command, Yemisi Opalola, declined comments on the allegations when PREMIUM TIMES contacted her on phone.

On Friday, the state government said there was threat of violence in some local government areas of the state allegedly instigated by a former governor of the state, Adegboyega Oyetola.

However, the police also issued released a statement advising the state to suspend the election because it received intelligence that violence may erupt during the poll..

PREMIUM TIMES also reported that the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, advised the Osun State Government not to proceed with the council election..

Mr Fagbemi said that a recent Court of Appeal ruling has returned the council chairpersons sacked in 2022 and that they should remain in office until October 2025.

However, despite the advice the state government proceeded to hold the election and ordered restrictions on all vehicular movement.