The forum of chairmanship and councillorship candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in Osun, on Friday, urged the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) to postpone the council poll by three months.
They attributed their demand to the position of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi SAN, security concerns, and their inability to secure tags for their party agents, among others.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, the spokesperson for the forum, Bode Babalola, who is chairmanship candidate of LP in Osogbo Local Government, said “we don’t want to put the lives of our people in jeopardy because we are very suspicious of security arrangement.
He stated, “Only today at around 4:00 pm, we were at the OSSIEC secretariat asking for tags for our party agents, and there was nobody to attend to us. One Adelowo, a staff of the commission that we called on the phone about three times, told us to wait till 4:00 p.m.
“Why can’t we wait till this situation is brought under control. We spent about N5.3 million to purchase forms for our candidates. We want to wait till everything is okay. The AGF made a point yesterday and he was advising that we should put this election on hold. He is not giving us law but it is wise wisdom.
“We want the election to be postponed, not canceled, for a month or two so that this issue will be resolved. Elections usually have aftermath. This time around, it is dangerous for us to call our people out. We don’t want to put their lives in jeopardy because of our ambition to win the election.”
He also disclosed that LP was fielding chairmanship candidates in Ife North, Ife East, and Osogbo Local government areas, while the party was fielding councillorship candidates in 18 local government councils.
Meanwhile, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), in Osun has boycotted Saturday’s local government poll.
In a letter dated February 20, 2025, which was addressed to OSSIEC and signed by the party’s chairman, Adewale Adebayo, APM stated that “as a political party committed to upholding the rule of law and democratic principles, we firmly believe that proceeding with elections under the current circumstances is not only illegal but fundamentally undermines the integrity of our democratic system.”
Adebayo, however, hinted that there was nobody at the OSSIEC to receive the letter of their party’s resolve to boycott the election.
