LG poll: OSSIEC, Osun APC bicker over Court of Appeal judgment

Authorities of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) and the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Wednesday, disagreed over the judgment of the Court of Appeal, sitting in Akure, which purportedly reinstated local government chairmen and councillors sacked in 2022 by Governor Ademola Adeleke.

While the chairman of OSSIEC, Mr Hashim Abioye, declared that there was no court order stopping the electoral body from conducting the February 22 local government poll in the state, the APC, in a statement signed by its legal adviser, Adegoke Ogunsola, argued that no council election can be held considering the content of the court judgment.

Reacting to the judgment, Abioye stated, “There’s no court judgment or ruling stopping the conduct of the forthcoming local government poll in Osun State.

“The reasoning of the appellate court was that the suit was filed before the notice of election was issued by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC). It must be noted that it was during the pendency of the said suit before the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo in FHC/OS/CS/94/2022 that OSSIEC Law 2022 was enacted and the notice of election was issued.

“The claimant in the case amended the originating summons to bring the suit in line with the developments that occurred during the pendency of the suit. The Federal High Court delivered its judgment in the suit on November 25, 2022, nullifying the election and sacking the purported elected officials.

“The affected political party, All Progressives Congress (APC), and their purported candidates for the election appealed the judgment, and today the Court of Appeal delivered a judgment in the appeal striking out the suit for being speculative. No more to that at the Court of Appeal.”

However, APC legal adviser in Osun, Adeleke Ogunsola, cautioned Abioye to refrain from any act capable of undermining the integrity and sanctity of the judiciary in respect of the unambiguous verdict unanimously delivered by the Justices of the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, Ondo State.

Ogunsola, who frowned at the statement issued by Abioye in response to the verdict, said it is laughable that a supposed legal practitioner would stoop to the ground of defending the indefensible.

In a statement forwarded to journalists, he said, “Our attention has been drawn to a miscarriage issued by Mr. Hashim Abioye, the purported chairman of OSSIEC, which has been captured by the People’s Democratic Party government in Osun State.

“In the said miscarriage of Mr Abioye, he deliberately set out to misrepresent the purport and import of the decision of the Court of Appeal in the appeal decided today, the 10th day of February 2025, as if the said decision did not reinstate the wrongly sacked APC local government chairmen and councillors.

“This is far from the truth, as the Court of Appeal in unmistakable language nullified the decision of the Federal High Court which wrongly removed the elected local government chairmen and councillors from office.

“With the decision of the Court of Appeal, the terms of office of the local government chairmen and councillors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in 2022 are still extant and have not expired.

“In the circumstance, no local government election can be held by the compromised OSSIEC in February 2025 to overreach the decision of the Court of Appeal and the preserved terms of the oppressed, denied, and victimized local government chairmen and councillors who were duly elected in 2022.”