The Osun State House of Assembly has decried the redeployment of the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Mutiu Agbaje, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to Ondo State, alleging that the development was part of plots to manipulate the electoral process during the August 15 governorship election in Osun State.

It would be recalled that Agbaje on Wednesday announced that he had been redeployed to Ondo State amid preparations for the off-cycle gubernatorial polls in Osun State.

However, during a media briefing in Osogbo yesterday, Speaker of the Osun State Assembly, Wale Egbedun, said credible information indicated that more transfer of key INEC personnel were being planned ahead of the election with a view to allegedly manipulating the exercise.

Egbedun, who expressed worry over the pattern of redeployment, contended that no amount of deployment or administrative changes could override the will of the people to exercise their franchise during the forthcoming polls.

The Speaker, while calling the attention of the international community, development partners, and all observers of democratic governance to the development in Osun, added, “We speak as representatives of the people of Osun State. All we ask for, and all we insist on, is a free, fair, and credible election.”