BREAKING: Osun Local Government Councils election nullified

After one month, two weeks of Osun State Local Government Councils election, a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo has nullified the exercise.

The election was declared null and void on Friday by the Hon. Justin Justice Ayo-Nathaniel Emmanuel.

The LG election was conducted by
the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), chaired by Segun Oladitan, after the State governor, Adegboyega Oyetola lost the governorship election to Senator Ademola Adeleke.

Meanwhile, Justice Emmanuel cited non-compliance with the Electoral Act as amended as reasons the LG election was annulled.

Delivering his judgement, the presiding Judge directed all Council Chairmen and Councillors to vacate offices with immediate effect.

In response to the court decision, the Osun Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated that its activism against the illegality of the outgoing Adegboyega Oyetola administration had been vindicated.

The party’s Osun caretaker chairman, Akindele Adekunle, lamented in a statement that the Oyetola administration squandered about N1.5 billion naira set aside for workers’ welfare in order to conduct the election, in addition to millions of naira illegally paid as salaries and allowances to fictitious council chiefs.

“We had warned against holding that fake selection they called election. We had cited all relevant legal authorities to convince OSIEC to back out of the undemocratic scheme. The Commission Chairman who himself is a lawyer decided to act against clear provisions of the law to supervise this crudely executed lawlessness.

“This judgement is an affirmation of the correctness of many alerts we have issued in recent times. The outgoing Governor had deliberately committed a lot of infractions and lawlessness. We will deploy all legal means to correct the anomalies in compliance with public service rules, extant laws and the constitution of the republic,” the party leader stated.