The Chairman of the Osun Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), Chief Segun Oladitan has accused the opposition party in the state of double standard and being unpatriotic for accusing the commission of bias in the last Saturday local government election.
Oladitan said the commission will not accept any comment intended to ridicule the credibility of the poll which according to him was adjudged to be among the best by election observers.
OSIEC Chairman said this while responding to the allegations made by the State Chairman of the Accord Party, Mr. Segun Fanibe during a live radio programme in Osogbo.
Fanibe had accused the commission of compromising the electoral process and conspiring with the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to manipulate the election result in favour of the APC.
Accord party Chairman made reference to Ile- Ife and Osu, in Atakunmosa-East Local Government where he alleged that the process was marred with violence and irregularities, but despite the noticeable flaws, OSIEC proceeded to announce the election.
OSIEC chairman however described the allegations as unfounded, baseless and a reflection of bad loser characteristics of Nigeria politicians, saying the commission was confident of the process as the most credible and transparent in recent times.
The chairman explained that from the beginning of the process, all political parties were periodically engaged to be active players in the process and there was no time any was denied information allowed by law to be released.
He described as unfortunate the character of the Nigeria politicians not to accept electoral defeat in good faith no matter the level of transparency during the process.
“The inference I was able to draw from the whole allegation is that the oppositions are only trying to soil the credibility of the process which is not new in the character of Nigeria politicians”
“In all the places where violence were reported particularly in Osu and Okini, the security agents took over the situation and managed it to a level that electoral process were concluded and not affected by violence and where there were report of the late arrival of electoral materials, we directed our staff to extend the voting period to ensure that 7 hours specified voting period was not jeopardised and no eligible voter is disenfranchised”, Oladitan said
All the 389 candidates of APC who contested the local government elections were declared winners by OSIEC on Sunday
Announcing the results at the commissions, headquarters, Osogbo, Oladitan, said the ruling party’s candidates were returned in all the councillorship 389 seats.
He said a total of 71 candidates of the total number had opponents during the election as 318 candidates were returned unopposed.
According to Mr. Oladitan, 128 of the unopposed returned candidates were from Osun Central Senatorial District, while 117 were from Osun West and the remaining 73 from Osun East Senatorial District.
