From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Mixed reactions on Saturday trailed the Local Government election conducted by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC).
The ballot paper used for the election had boxes for YES/NO signifying that only the All Progressives Congress (APC) fielded candidates for the election.
The governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, who voted at his polling unit 002, Ward 1, Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area, commended the process, saying “against all odds, democracy is thriving in the country.”
Spending after casting his wife alongside his wife, Kafayat, Oyetola described the process as peaceful, orderly and rancour-free, saying “this is an indication that the nation’s democracy is thriving and progressing steadily.”
He commended the electoral body, OSIEC, for its resolve and commitment to have a free, fair, transparent, credible and acceptable electoral process.
But, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the election as a waste of resources, threatening that every person involved in the election will be made to face the law.
In a statement by its state caretaker chairman, Dr Adekunle Akindele, the PDP said, “it is imperative to point out that apart from the fact that the purported election was conducted in variance to known democratic tenets, the pending litigations challenging the validity of the notice and the processes of the election, which the APC & OSSIEC did all within their efforts to frustrate its expeditious determination, is enough to cast the whole exercise into the waste bin.
“The OSSIEC chairman should therefore note that he has prepared a solid ground of gross misconduct for himself and his members, and therefore will be taken to public account and forever go down in history as the biggest fraud that has ever happened to democracy not only in Osun State but Nigeria as a whole.
“We reiterate our warning that the PDP will do away with all the illegal officials that are produced from this exercise and want to make it clear that the incoming administration will ensure that everyone involved in this shameful act will not escape the wrath of the law just as every penny expended on it will be recovered,” PDP vowed.