Follow Us on Google
From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have disagreed over the constitutionality of the proposed Local Government election in Osun State.
The PDP in a letter by Hashim Abioye to the Administrative Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), asked the commission not to release the updated voters register to Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) for the October 15 local government election.
The PDP lawyer stressed that the proposed local government election is illegal and unconstitutional, saying that the release of the voter’s register will result in INEC “aiding and abetting OSSIEC in perpetrating a criminal act.”
He said, “the provision of the Electoral Act, 2022 Section 28 thereof is that no election can hold until and unless a notice of such election is given “not later than 360 days” before the said election and in Section 29 of the same Act, list of candidates must be published “not later than 180 days.”
But, the APC Chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun, warned the PDP to stop arrogating to itself the power it doesn’t possess by turning itself into ‘an instructor or pathfinder’ of an independent statutory body.
In a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Kola Olabisi, on Tuesday, Famodun stressed that the PDP lacks the power or authority to dictate to an independent body like OSSIEC which derives its creation and existence from the Electoral Act 2022.
“If the statement credited to the Osun PDP that the INEC should deny the OSSIEC the updated voters register is anything to go by, it is suggestive of the fact that the PDP is sponsoring, oiling and encouraging an avoidable heating up of the polity in the state.
“Do we need to educate the PDP handlers that in a decent and real democratic society, the court is always there to adjudicate on any constitutional matter?”
The APC argued that the directive of the PDP is “reckless, misleading, diversionary and unlawful and should be disregarded in its entirety.”
