The Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, on Friday nullified the local government election conducted by the Osun Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC).
In his ruling, Justice Ayo-Nathaniel Emmanuel, the presiding judge held that the local government election on October 15 contravened sections 29 & 32 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
He, therefore declared the election null and void for not being conducted in consonance with the Electoral Act 2022.
The court also ordered the chairman and councillors elected into the local government across the state through the process to vacate office with immediate effect.
This was sequel to the lawsuit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), approaching the court to stop OSSIEC from going ahead with the planned polls.
The party had argued that the chairman of the State Electoral Commission, Segun Oladitan, only allowed one political party, the APC to contest in the election.
Other respondents in the matter include INEC, the All-Progressives Congress (APC), and its then chairman Adeboyega Famoodun.
It would be recalled that the election was conducted by the state Electoral body (OSSIEC) on the 15th of October.
Reacting to the judgement, the State Caretaker Chairman of the PDP, Dr Akindele Adekunle, lamented that about N1.5billion deployed for workers’ welfare was wasted by the Oyetola administration for the conduct of the local government elections in addition to several millions of naira illegally paid as salaries and allowances to people he called fake Local Government Council chiefs.
“We had warned against the holding of that fake selection they called an election. We had cited all relevant legal authorities to convince OSIEC to back out of the undemocratic scheme. The Commission chairman, who is a lawyer, decided to act against clear law provisions to supervise this crudely executed lawlessness.”
