The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday resolved to take its complaints about last Saturday’s governorship election in the state to the election petition tribunal.
The resolution was reached at an extraordinary meeting of all stakeholders in the party in Osogbo to review the election.
The chairman of the party’s legal team, Mr. Ojo Williams, moved a motion that the Osun State governorship election was marred with fraud and irregularities, adding that the outcome should be rejected in its totality. The former Chairman of the PDP in Osun West, Alhaji Halidu Tiamiyu, seconded the motion, which was adopted by the entire leadership of the party.
The communique which was signed by the PDP chairman described the election as a robbery, saying the PDP in Osun would contest it.
The party praised and commended the people of the state for coming out enmasse to vote for the PDP.
The Publicity Secretary of Osun PDP, told our correspondent that it was not out of place for them to contest the outcome of the election in court in spite of the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the national leader of the party, had congratulated the winner of the election.
He said, “The President and the other leaders of our party at the national level are leaders of democratic Nigeria, therefore they have to show example. We are the ones on ground here; we are the ones that saw what happened and are in the best position to decide the way forward for the party. During the election, there was monumental fraud. There were irregularities and the only option is for us to go to court so that the true mandate of Osun people would reflect.
“Some of our agents were sent away during the accreditation. They were asked to go and bring letters and some of them did not return until after the accreditation. There was ballot stuffing all over the place and there were discrepancies between the number of accredited voters and votes cast in a number of polling units. There was the issue of harassment and intimidation of our supporters all over the state by the supposed winners of the election.”
He added that the party had reported the post-election harassment of its members to the Inspector-General of Police and the Director of the Directorate of State Security, saying that if the situation is not checked they would have no choice than to ask their supporters to retaliate.
The resolution was reached at an extraordinary meeting of all stakeholders in the party in Osogbo to review the election.
The chairman of the party’s legal team, Mr. Ojo Williams, moved a motion that the Osun State governorship election was marred with fraud and irregularities, adding that the outcome should be rejected in its totality. The former Chairman of the PDP in Osun West, Alhaji Halidu Tiamiyu, seconded the motion, which was adopted by the entire leadership of the party.
The communique which was signed by the PDP chairman described the election as a robbery, saying the PDP in Osun would contest it.
The party praised and commended the people of the state for coming out enmasse to vote for the PDP.
The Publicity Secretary of Osun PDP, told our correspondent that it was not out of place for them to contest the outcome of the election in court in spite of the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the national leader of the party, had congratulated the winner of the election.
He said, “The President and the other leaders of our party at the national level are leaders of democratic Nigeria, therefore they have to show example. We are the ones on ground here; we are the ones that saw what happened and are in the best position to decide the way forward for the party. During the election, there was monumental fraud. There were irregularities and the only option is for us to go to court so that the true mandate of Osun people would reflect.
“Some of our agents were sent away during the accreditation. They were asked to go and bring letters and some of them did not return until after the accreditation. There was ballot stuffing all over the place and there were discrepancies between the number of accredited voters and votes cast in a number of polling units. There was the issue of harassment and intimidation of our supporters all over the state by the supposed winners of the election.”
He added that the party had reported the post-election harassment of its members to the Inspector-General of Police and the Director of the Directorate of State Security, saying that if the situation is not checked they would have no choice than to ask their supporters to retaliate.
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