ALL arrangements for today’s governorship election in Osun State are in top gear.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it is fully prepared for the free and fair conduct of the processes of the exercise.
The election will determine who runs the affairs of the state for the next four years. No fewer than 15 political parties and candidates are participating in the election.
The number of registered voters to elect the new helmsman or mandated the incumbent to continue in the office are put at 1,955,657.
Presently, the state is under the control of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate is Governor Adegboyega Oyetola who is seeking re-election.
Oyetola’s main challenger is Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party; Architect Goke Omigbodun of Social Democratic Party (SDP); Hon. Lasun Yusuf and former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives of Labour Party among others.
The police authority has disclosed that it had deployed about 21,000 personnel for the election while Nigeria Security Civil Defence Corps also deployed 11,226 officers to monitor the election in 3,763 polling units across the state.
At the time of filing this report, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it had distributed sensitive election materials to its 30 local government councils of the state.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Abdulganiyu Raji said the distribution of the materials at the INEC office in Osogbo was witnessed by agents of political parties, journalists and election observers.
He explained that the sensitive materials were taken to INEC local government offices under heavy security.
“We took delivery of the sensitive materials at midnight of Wednesday, and it has been with us for about 36 hours. The party agents have seen the materials.
“These materials have been under very heavy security since the day we brought them and we also invited the party agents to witness the arrival, including the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) chairman,” Raji said.
He said five national commissioners and 12 supporting RECs were in the state already for the election and that each had been assigned the local government they would supervise.
Raji said some of the sensitive materials, like the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), had also been distributed.
“Earlier today, we loaded the BVAS into the vehicles. The ballot papers will now be loaded and each local government vehicle will now move out and we expect that in the next two to three hours, they will reach their destinations,” he said.
He said the materials (ballot papers and result registers) were customised according to the local governments and according to the polling units.
He told journalists to check election result sheets for his signature, saying result sheets without his signature would not be considered authentic.
Meanwhile, the state government has announced the restriction of vehicles movement across the state between 6am to 4pm on election day.
A statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prince Wole Oyebamiji made available to newsmen assured the residents not to entertain any fear from any quarters about the election.
According to the statement, “The Governor of Osun State, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola has assured the people of the State that they should not entertain any fear about tomorrow’s election.
“According to him, adequate security is guaranteed for all law- abiding citizens as all security agencies have their operatives on ground to ensure there’s no security breach or breakdown of law and order.
“As a result of this, Governor Oyetola has directed that vehicles coming into the State should ensure that they arrive latest by 10pm tonight. Only vehicles passing through Osun to other states will be allowed free movement.
“Consequently, there will be no vehicular movement tomorrow between 6am and 4pm, except those on essential electoral duties,” he added.
However, to guarantee safety ahead of today’s governorship election, soldiers have arrested the Chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Oroki Branch, Osogbo, Kazeem Oyewale, who information revealed had been terrorising people with dangerous weapons.
Oyewale, notoriously known as Asiri Eniba, was reportedly arrested alongside some armed political hoodlums at Ojurin Motor Park, Old Garage, Osogbo, around 12:45pm.
The arrested armed thugs were believed to be sympathisers of the ruling party in the state.
It was gathered that Oyewale, who put on white native, had attempted to escape before he was cautioned by the soldiers.
Eye witnesses’ account revealed that “The soldiers came with a hilux and one hummer bus. They went straight to where Asiri and his boys were. The soldiers took a strategic position and surrounded the building where Asiri and his boys were.
“Some of them went inside and we were hearing noise. They later matched out Asiri and like five of his boys. Two of the boys were with guns.
“When the soldiers were matching them into the bus, some thugs were throwing stones at the soldiers and that forced them to be shooting sporadically.”
In the meantime, the PDP says it has uncovered an orchestrated plot by the APC to derail the nation’s democracy by compromising the integrity and sabotaging the will and desire of the people for a free, fair, transparent and credible electoral process.
A spokesman for the PDP, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, in a statement on Friday, said the APC has accentuated its rigging programme by deploying billions of naira to compromise some security and electoral officers to intimidate voters, manipulate electoral process and inordinately favour the APC Candidate, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, against the will of the people.
The PDP said it has been made aware of how huge sums of money have been funneled to certain compromised security and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials to execute this ignoble scheme.
“The said INEC and security officials are reported to have been bought over to among other things, criminally assist and provide cover for APC agents to prosecute a well-oiled vote buying and violence-triggering scheme.
“Our Party has information on how two prominent APC Governors from the South West, a former APC National Chairman from the South South, certain federal Minister and a particular member of the House of Assembly from Lagos State are coordinating the release of billions of naira to bribe electoral and security officials as well as fund heavily armed thugs imported from Lagos, Ondo, Ogun and other South West States to unleash violence and help the APC to rig the election.
“The PDP alerts of a leaked report of how the APC released N20 million and N15 million respectively to two top police officers; N10 million to four Assistant Inspector General of Police, N5 million each to four Commissioners of Police, N3 million each to 15 Deputy Commissioners of Police, N2million each to 30 Assistant Commissioners of Police to compromise the electoral process.
“Our Party also has further reports of how the APC released the sum of N10 million per Local Government Area for INEC officials in all the 30 Local Government Areas in Osun Steta, N7million to thugs masquerading as Amotekun officials and a huge sum of money for propaganda to a certain compromised media outfit.
“The PDP has however been made aware that some patriotic INEC and Police officials vehemently rejected the poisonous offer by the APC. Our Party salutes the courage and patriotism of such officers who resisted the APC for the love of our country.
“The PDP calls on the Inspector General of Police and the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to take immediate decisive steps to check the activities of police and INEC officials deployed to Osun State so as to avert a breakdown of Law and Order, especially given the manifest determination of the people of Osun State to resist the APC on its evil scheme,” Hon Ologunagba enunciated.
Notwithstanding, today’s election is expected to be a straight fight between the ruling APC and opposition PDP. Though, other parties might spring surprises but not to the level of having significant votes in winning the poll because they lack political structure, financial capacity, popularity and public acceptance in the 30 local government councils of the state unlike APC and PDP.
In 2018, Oyetola won the poll with 482 votes. He defeated Adeleke at the re-run election that took place in seven polling units across four local government areas after the first ballot. Adeleke had in the first ballot won with 353 votes after polling 254,698 against Oyetola’s 254,345.
