Heavy security can scare away voters – Experts
APC mobilising thugs to Osun, PDP alleges
Candidates, parties to sign peace pact on Wednesday
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State, stakeholders are worried over a possible outbreak of violence.
Developments on Sunday night have continued to generate ripples across the state, leading to questions if all would be peaceful come Saturday.
The candidates of the Labour Party, Lasun Yusuff and that of the Accord Party, Akin Ogunbiyi, on Monday alleged that they were attacked by thugs.
While the country home of Ogunbiyi was torched, gunmen allegedly stormed Lasun’s house at night.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state on Monday alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress has mobilised thugs into the state to disrupt the governorship election.
Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party in the state, Akindele Adekunle, in a statement, tasked security agencies to stop the thugs from carrying out their mission.
“We are in possession of reliable reports of political thugs mobilised by the All Progressive Congress (APC) now arriving in various parts of Osun state.
In a countdown to the election day on Saturday, Osun State is witnessing the influx of armed men and women whose sole goal is to violently disrupt the peaceful conduct of the election.
“It is already in the public domain that thugs imported from Lagos are already lodged at various hotels in Osun State including Blue Petals Hotels, very close to the seat of government at Abere. We have reports that such daredevil hands have been deployed to various zones including Iwo zone where a PDP party agent was shot at and Osogbo axis where the residence of the governorship candidate of Labour Party was attacked.
The increasing number of attacks and the unchecked activities of thugs across the state pose serious danger to the peaceful conduct of Saturday elections.
“We particularly charge the newly deployed Police Election Commissioner and the Deputy Inspector General of Police posted to Osun State to take judicious note and urgently act to arrest the situation. The security agencies should not wait until citizens resort to self-help before the menace of party thugs is nipped in the bud.
“We however appeal to Osun voters never to be intimidated. We must reject violence and intimidation by trooping out enmasse to cast our votes for PDP on Saturday. Our votes will and must count on Saturday,” Akindele said.
Meanwhile, a security expert, Akin Adeyi, has said the pockets of attacks in Osun State in the build-up to the governorship election on Saturday, would not threaten the expected peaceful conduct of the poll.
He said the state had been peaceful until the reported attack on the residence of Lasun, saying that there was more to the attack than what the candidate made the public understand.
He advised the Federal Government to de-emphasise heavy policing of elections saying that the method of deploying thousands of security agents to governorship elections was archaic and uncivilized. He said a heavy security presence could intimidate and scare voters away from performing their civic duties and intimidate other residents at large.
Adeyi who is a politician said the Independent National Electoral Commission has improved on electoral processes to the extent that the usage of thugs at elections had been rendered inconsequential, adding that thugs would be useless during the Osun election.
“Osun has been peaceful. About six days to the election, the people on the streets have been going about their normal businesses as if nothing is happening. It’s a peaceful state and the recent event cannot be a threat to the Saturday election. There is more to the alleged attack on Lasun’s house than what we are hearing. Politicians can be funny and they can cook up allegations just to cow their counterparts. Osun was about recording the best pre-election peaceful atmosphere so far before the alleged attack on Lasun’s residence.
“INEC has done well by making the electoral processes to be difficult to rig. Thugs are now inconsequential and useless at elections. Nobody is patronising thugs as such. The only challenge INEC is having is vote-buying.
“INEC has improved and I expect the security people to also improve by learning how to secure elections without necessarily making the number of security personnel to be more than voters. This could lead to intimidation.
Police will deploy, Army, civil defence and others will also deploy thousands, this shows they are not civilized and only applying old and archaic methods of large physical security,” the expert said.
The Executive Director of a Civil Society Organisation involved in observing the Osun election, Refuge of Life Foundation, Olabode Bolarinwa, also said the election was expected to be peaceful owing to the heavy deployment of security agents in the state
He said the influx of illegal miners and other strangers in the state could pose a threat to the peaceful conduct of the elections adding that security agents had already discovered this and would be mopping them out.
Meanwhile, the Rtd General Abdulsalami Abubakar led National Peace Council announced on Sunday via a statement that all governorship candidates and their political parties will on Wednesday, July 13, sign a Peace Accord to commit themselves to the smooth conduct of the exercise.
The statement reads, “The NPC hereby wishes to announce that a peace accord will be signed by the various political parties and stakeholders on 13th July 2022, in Osogbo, Osun State.”
Abubakar also called on INEC and all stakeholders to consolidate on the success of the recently held Ekiti State governorship poll.
