The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has cast his vote in the ongoing local government election in the state.
The governor voted around 7:56am at Unit 9, Sagba Abogunde Ward 2, in Ede North Local Government Area of the state.
The governor arrived at the polling unit in company of his supporters and some members of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Adeleke commended the State Independent Electoral Commission for the peaceful process in the conduct of the election.
The APC and Labour Party have both withdrawn from the election separately citing judicial rulings and inadequate security.
However Adeleke advised residents to go out and cast their vote without any fear of intimidation, urging political stakeholders and electorate to shun violence during and after the elections.
Adeleke expressed confidence that all PDP candidates would emerge victorious in the elections.
“I want to urge everyone to come out and cast their votes. The election will be peaceful”, the governor assured.
The Osun State Government had rejected the security advice from the Nigeria Police Force on Friday, which called for the suspension of the local government election scheduled for Saturday (today).
In a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, the police said the credible intelligence indicates a high likelihood of violence and significant security threats should the planned council election holds in the state.
However, in a statement signed late Friday by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, the state government stated that the grounds for rejecting the advice were based on the rule of law and aversion to police partisanship.
Acknowledging the security advice, the state government said it had reviewed the advice and came to the conclusion that the proposal from the force headquarters was biased, partisan and in contravention of democratic tenets.
The statement reads, “The pretence of the service to be serving the public good while actually promoting the illegality of the APC reinforces our rejection of a Greek gift.
“From the beginning of this face off, the police has breached best practices by its open support for the All Progressives Congress, a party that is pushing for illegality through a non-existing court order. The whole world knows how the police actively aided the APC to enforce a reinstatement order that was never issued by any court of law.
“A law enforcement agency has suddenly become a partisan wing of a political party, the APC, thereby losing all toga of a fair law agency. The negative role of the police to ignite the current face off made its advice a poison chocolate.
“Beyond the above, we also call the attention of the police to the court judgment of today. It contains three orders which affirm vacancies in Osun councils by authenticating the sacking of the APC council chieftains directed the police and other security agencies to provide security for the election and gave go ahead to fresh LG elections by Saturday 22nd.”
The state government also accused the police of pursuing partisan interests rather than obeying court order and working against the rule of law.
“Instead of the police to obey court order, the service is regrettably pursuing its partisan line by actively working against rule of law as espoused by today’s court ruling.
“If the police chose to disobey court orders, the Osun State government will not go against rule of law, hence the decision of the state government to support the state electoral commission to conduct a credible free and fair elections tomorrow.
“We thank the police for their advice. We respectfully turned down the request while we urged Osun voters to peacefully exercise their voting rights on Saturday.”
