I’m No Longer A PDP Member, No Law Says I Can’t Be OSIEC Chair – Hashim Abioye

The Chairman, Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSIEC, Hashim Abioye, on Thursday, disclosed that he is no longer a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Abioye revealed that he resigned his membership of the PDP before the Osun State House of Assembly confirmed his nomination by Governor Adeleke.

Controversies have trailed the appointment of Abioye as OSIEC chairman, especially with his association with the state government and the Peoples Democratic Party.

Abioye was a Special Advisor on Legal Matters to Governor Adeleke before he was appointed OSIEC chairman.

There were calls for his resignation by the opposition parties and
Civil Societies Organisations due to his association with the PDP.

Also, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had dragged Adeleke to court over Abioye’s appointment.

But Abioye while responding to questions on a radio current affairs programme in Osogbo on Thursday, assured the residents of the state that he would be impartial in conducting the forthcoming local government election in the state.

He maintained that he resigned his membership from the PDP immediately after he got wind of his appointment to head the electoral body.

He added that there is no law that says someone who has practised partisan politics before can not become the OSIEC chairman.

According to him, “Even if my appointment was defective, it doesn’t affect the work of the agency, that is what they (critics) don’t know.

“I have resigned my membership from the PDP immediately I got wind of my appointment to head the electoral body. I only call on the stakeholders in the state not to see me as being partisan.

“People are looking at it from the angle of politics, people are not looking at it from the angle of service delivery. They are not looking at it from the angle of what is expected in a society from a particular agency or government.

“If you are saying a person is too politically exposed to head an agency, particularly an agency like OSIEC that is supposed to be independent, I want to tell you that there are some people who are not political players as such but if you put them there, what they would do would be worse than what you may even think or imagine.

“They were looking at the partisan Hashim, they were not looking at the present non-partisan, party-less and apolitical Hashim.

“I know that the moment the baton has fallen on me to head the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, then, the issue of partisanship is no longer there.

“The law does not say that if you were partisan before, you cannot become OSIEC Chairman today.”