By our reporter
There may be further breakdown of law and order in Osun State, South-West Nigeria, on Saturday, February 22, following the state government’s resolve to push ahead with Local Government Area (LGA) elections in the wake of a court order.
The polls are to fill the positions of Chairman and Councillors in all 30 LGAs across the state.
Already, federal Attorney General (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi SAN, had cautioned the Osun State government under Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to comply with an appellate court verdict ordering the return of some sacked LGA Chairmen elected on the platform of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Furthermore, Fagbemi urged Gov. Adeleke not to go ahead with the elections.
The present political bitterness in Osun State has its roots in the 2022 Osun State governorship election where Adeleke, under the PDP platform, defeated incumbent governor,Gboyega Oyetola, denying him a second term in the process.
Oyetola, who is now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy and is believed to be a close relation of President Bola Tinubu, had defeated Adeleke in the 2018 Osun governorship rerun poll.
Now, per Sahara Reporters , the Osun State High Court in Ilesa has ordered the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) to proceed with conducting elections for vacant positions in the state’s LGAs.
According to the ruling, the state is mandated to conduct elections to fill vacant positions for local government chairmen and councillors across all 30 LGAs and the area office in Osun State.
The order, issued on Friday, February 21, 2025, by Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe, followed a suit filed by the PDP, one of the parties contesting in the election.
It went thus: “An order of this honourable court is granted, recognising the existing vacancies across all the 30 Local Government Areas of Osun State, the election conducted by the first defendant on 15th October 2022, having being invalidated, nullified and voided, and the purported elected officials produced by the purported election having been sacked by the Federal High Court FHC/CS/OS/103/2022; in ACTION PEOPLE PARTY (APP) VS INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC) & ors. delivered on the 30th November 2022, and as confirmed by the decision of the Court of Appeal in Appeal No. CA/AK/226M/2024, ALLIED PEOPLE MOVEMENT (APM) & ORS vs ACTION PEOPLES PARTY (APP) & ORS delivered on 13th January 2025.
“An order of this honourable court is granted, directing, mandating and compelling the defendants to fill the vacancies across the 30 Local Government Areas of Osun State through a democratic process by proceeding to conduct the Local Government ELECTIONS already scheduled by the defendants for 22nd of February, 2025.
“An order of this honourable court is granted, directing, mandating and compelling all the security agents comprising of the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Army, the Department of State Security Services (DSS), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the National Drugs and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Amotekun Corps, the Vigilante Groups etc. to provide adequate security and maintain peace and order before, during and after the local government election scheduled by the Defendants for February 22, 2025, in Osun State.”
Fagbemi had previously declared that the Osun State government should not proceed with LGA elections.
Fagbemi had cited the February 10, 2025, ruling of the Court of Appeal (Akure Division) in Appeal No. CA/AK/272/2022, which overturned an earlier Federal High Court decision that had removed elected LG officials.
He asserted that the appellate court’s decision effectively reinstated the officials, who are legally entitled to remain in office until October 2025.
Despite the AGF’s directive, the Osun State government has insisted that the elections would proceed as planned.
In a statement issued by Gov. Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, the governor reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law, emphasising that Osun remains a peaceful state.
Recall that at least five persons were reportedly feared killed and many others injured in the State last Monday as the power struggle over control of LG Secretariats boiled over.
In the wake of differing interpretations to the recent Court of Appeal judgment in Akure, which purportedly reinstated the APC-elected Chairperson and Councillors who were sacked in 2022, both feuding parties moved to effect the judgment in their own ways.
While the APC maintained that the judgment explicitly reinstated the LG officials, the Adeleke government dismissed such as false.
Spirited bid by some APC members to forcibly take over Council Secretariats triggered violent clashes with PDP supporters who stiffly rebuffed such.
For instance, in Irewole LGA, tension turned bloody when hoodlums allegedly killed former Council Chairman, Mr. Remi Abass, during an argument.
Sources alleged that Abass and some APC members had moved to seize the LG Secretariat in furtherance of enforcing the court ruling but were met with armed resistance.
According to the sources, in a gun battle that ensued, he was shot dead, with several others left critically injured.
The development came even as sources claimed that six other persons were killed while they were attempting to take over a Secretariat in another LG.
