CITIZENS COMPASS– The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cleared all Chairman seats during the local government election in Osun State on Saturday.
The party emerged victorious across the 30 local government areas (LGAs) of the State.
The Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC), Hashim Abioye, made the announcement during a press conference on Saturday.
Abioye had earlier described the election as peaceful and well-conducted, dismissing earlier concerns raised by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).
However, he confirmed that some polling units experienced delays in the arrival of materials due to the arrest of OSSIEC officials.
He stated that the officials of the commission were arrested despite the fact that no court had issued any order for their arrest.
Abioye also apologised to journalists for the inadequacy of accreditation tags and jackets, attributing the issue to the police sealing off the commission’s office.
“The Local Government election has been successfully concluded. It was conducted in compliance with constitutional provisions, extant laws, regulations and guidelines.
“The election was conducted to fill the existing vacancies in 332 wards in the state and 30 LGAs of the state. The election was contested by 18 political parties and the result has been submitted to the commission.
“From the available result as obtained from the field, the candidates of the PDP in 332 wards emerged as winners, and I as the chief returning officer of the commission hereby return each and every one of them as duly elected Councillors of their wards.
“For the 30 LGAs of Osun State, the candidates of PDP cleared all the seats to this effect, by the power conferred on me as the chief returning officer of OSSIEC, I hereby declare them as duly elected chairmen of their respective LGAs.
“I want to apologise once again to the media community for inability to provide accreditation materials, it was simply because the police have sealed our head office where the materials are kept, up till now, the police have refused to give us access,” Abioye said.
24 hours before the election, the Nigeria Police Force had advised on a stoppage of the election for security reasons.
This came after the state government got judgement from the court to proceed with the election.
