A Chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Kunle Olatunji has called on Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) to postpone this Saturday’s local government elections for two months.
Speaking with journalists in Ibadan, Olatunji, a former media Aide to late Gov. Abiola Ajimobi, said that the call became necessary to enable the APC to adequately prepare for participation in the council polls.
OYSIEC had fixed Saturday, May 22 for the conduct of local government election in the 33 local government areas of the state.
Recall that the Gov. Seyi Makinde had, on assumption of office in 2019, sacked the elected local government chairmen and councillors a year into their tenure.
The sacked chairmen and councillors on the platform of APC had approached the court to challenge their illegal removal from office.
The APC had hinged their non-participation in the forthcoming council poll on the pending suit at the court.
The Supreme Court had on May 7 in its ruling declared the removal of the sacked chairmen and councillors as illegal and ordered the state government ordered to pay them all their entitlements.
It would also be recalled that the APC had also written OYSIEC to postpone the election to allow its members to participate in the election.
Olatunji called on OYSIEC to postpone the election for two months to allow the APC candidates participate in the election, based on the outcome of the Supreme Court judgement.
He said that the APC decided not to participate in the electoral process as a result of the pending court case, saying the party was now ready since judgement has been delivered.
The APC chieftain advised OYSIEC to allow the APC participate in the election in the interest of peace, fairness and justice.
“I can tell you that if OYSIEC will be fair, that election should not hold on Saturday. OYSIEC should give opportunity to the opposition, especially the APC to participate in the election.
“OYSIEC as an umpire, is supposed to be balanced, fair and just in the conduct of elections in Oyo State. OYSIEC is an agency recognized by law to conduct election in the state.
“It is not a PDP affair, it is for the entire state. Ideally, it supposed to allow all parties to participate in the election.
“If you look at it, APC has been tactically denied the opportunity to participate in the election which is very unfair,” he said.
He said that there was no way APC could have participated in the election when it was in court to challenge the unlawful removal of elected local government officials.
“So, we are appealing to OYSIEC to reconsider their stand from conducting a local government election when APC as a leading political party is not participating in the election.
“I am telling you authoritatively, we will win 22 local government areas out of the 33 in Oyo State if they should allow APC to participate so as to test their popularity.
“All of us know that PDP has been rejected,” he said