Security agencies begin operations against hoodlums in Osun

• PDP petitions foreign embassies over Adamu’s comment

Ahead of Osun State July 16, 2022 governorship election, security agencies have launched operations against hoodlums who are planning to foment trouble.

They, therefore, urged the electorate to come out en-masse without fear to cast their votes for their preferred candidates.

The security agencies in the state stated this, yesterday, during a stakeholders’ meeting in preparation towards the governorship polls organised by an accredited election observer group, Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) in Osogbo.

The Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Correctional Service, National Orientation Agency (NOA), religious leaders, the media, youths, market leaders, civil society organisations, among others, attended the meeting.

According to a senior DSS official, the agency has identified some flashpoints across the state and plans by some hoodlums to cause trouble on the Election Day, adding that it will work with other security agencies to mop up criminal elements in the state.

“We have identified some flashpoints where there are lots of hoodlums that are trying to cause some problems for us on that day and we are trying to mop them up. A lot of efforts will be made to ensure that the election is peaceful. We have learnt one or two lessons from Ekiti election that will be needful to us. We are also tackling vote-buying. We are trying to gather enough evidence against vote-buying,” the official said.

Executive Director of CTA, Faith Nwadishi, urged the people of the state to shun vote-trading, saying: “They should not be like some Ekiti voters who “shamelessly traded their votes for money and one pack of spaghetti. It was that bad. That is not what we expect in Osun State.”

MEANWHILE, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic, Research, Innovations and Partnerships), Prof. Anthony Kola-Olusanya, has asked the electorate to make necessary findings about the governorship candidates to discover their antecedents, competence, integrity and capacity to deliver on their promises.

Kola-Olusanya urged security agencies, traditional rulers, religious leaders, CSOs and other stakeholders to step down the interaction and lessons to their members with a view to having a peaceful, free, fair and credible election in the state.

IN another development, the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, urged western nations to place visa ban on some leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC), especially the APC National Chairman, Abdulahi Adamu, following their alleged public declaration to rig the July 16, 2022 governorship election.

The petition, signed by the State Caretaker Chairman of the party, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, was sent to Ambassadors of United States (U.S.), High Commissioners of United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union (EU) with the party documenting the utterances and public instruction of Adamu to APC campaign council to allegedly rig the polls.