Osun LG Election Will Hold Despite Litigation – OSIEC

Chairman, Osun State Independent Electoral Commission(OSIEC) Otunba Segun Oladitan, has announced that the Local Government election slated for January 27 in the state would still hold despite pending litigation.

Oladitan made the submission while addressing OSIEC and ad-hoc staff of the commission in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, during a 2-day training workshop for Electoral Officers.

According to him, “a thorough and critical study of the litigation has revealed that it was not sufficient nor capable of putting a halt to the election.”

DAILY POST reports that some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts in Osun had challenged the legality of conducting election in the newly created Local Government Development Areas (LCDAs) at the Federal High court, Abuja.

The presiding judge, Justice John Tsoho on December 4, after listening to the lead counsel of the plaintiff, Chief Robert Clarke, ruled that status quo ante should be maintained pending the hearing of the substantive case. He, therefore, adjourned the case till January 11.

When the case came up for hearing on January 11, in which the lead counsel to the Osun State government ,Dr. Bashiru Ajibola, presented an application to set aside the earlier ruling, the presiding judge again adjourned the case till January 24, 2018.

However, the OSIEC’s chairman had disclosed that “only 18 political parties would participate in the contest.

Meanwhile, DAILY POST gathered that the main opposition party in the state, PDP, has outrightly boycotted the election for lack of transparency and failure to comply with rule of law.