BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has berated the Peoples Democratic Party for advising the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against making available the updated voters’ register to the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) for the purpose of the proposed local government poll planned for October 15, 2022.
In a letter signed by the PDP legal adviser, Hashim Abioye, INEC was also asked to stay aloof from the planned council polls noting that the insistence of OSSIEC in going ahead with conducting the elections despite various warnings from concerned citizens of the state, was in contravention of the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Abioye had stated that a legal action had been instituted in the Osogbo Federal High Court to ensure that the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, were complied with by OSSIEC in the conduct of local government elections.
But Osun APC chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun, in a statement issued on Tuesday, by his Media Adviser, Kola Olabisi, cautioned PDP to stop arrogating to itself the power it doesn’t possess by turning itself to an instructor or pathfinder of an independent statutory body like the OSSIEC.
Famodun said the PDP lacked the power or authority to dictate to OSSIEC, which derives its creation and existence from the Electoral Act 2022.
He reminded PDP that the symbiotic relationship between the INEC and the OSSIEC was not a master and servant type but mainly advisory in status.
“It is absurd and unheard of for a body of a supposed learned men under the aegis of the PDP to be dictating to the INEC to refuse the OSSIEC the lawful official privileges required to function effectively for the purpose of its creation,” he said.
