All the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC has been declared as the validly elected Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of 30 local governments and 39 Local Council Development Areas of Osun State.
Similarly, all the candidates of the ruling APC were elected unopposed as councilors into 369 wards of Osun State.
The announcement was made by the Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC, Otunba Segun Oladuntan why presenting to the public the outcome of the Local Government Election conducted in Osun State on Saturday.
Otunba Oladitan said all the APC councilors were returned unopposed in the Election based on the provision of the law.
“Section 35 of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission Law States that “If after the expiration of time for the delivery of nomination papers and the withdrawal of candidates for election to the office of Councilor only one nominated , that candidate shall be declared and returned unopposed”. He said
The OSSIEC Chairman added that only the APC returned nomination of it’s candidates, hence the ballot paper contained a ‘Yes or No’ remark to determine whether the electorates want them in the leadership of the various councils as provided by the Electoral Law.
He explained that the development was based on the provision of Section 106(1) (a) of the Electoral Act 2022 which states that
“a candidate for an election to the office of the Chairman shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office where being the only candidate nominated for the election he or she has (a) majority of YES vote over NO votes cast at the poll”.
Otunba Oladitan maintained that the Electoral Commission acted in compliance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic and the Electoral Law.
Shortly after the declaration, Chairmen of Olaoluwa South LCDA, Mr Adediti Adedayo and Obokun Local Government, Mr Mauruf Ogundipe thanked the people for returning them elected through the yes votes in the absence of other Political party’s candidates.
Meanwhile, the Osun State People’s Democratic party has described the exercise as illegal.
The state Public Relation Officer of the PDP, Mr Oladele Bamiji told Radio Nigeria that the exercise was in contravention of the Electoral Law which mandates the Electoral umpire to give a 365 days notice to all the Political parties.
Similarly, a human rights activist, Mr Kanmi Ajibola who is currently before a Federal High Court in Osogbo to Challenge the exercise said it was contempt of court for OSSIEC to have gone ahead with a subject matter which was already before the court.
However, the All Progressive Congress and the State government had commended the Osun State Electoral Commission for conducting a free, fair and credible local government election.
The APC Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Chief Kola Olabisi and the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor told Radio Nigeria in a different interviews that the Election would further deepen democracy.
Adenitan Akinola
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