The Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has declared that, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) boycotted the Saturday local government election to avoid imminent and disgraceful defeat.
Penpushing reports that, Abiodun who is the leader of the ruling party in the state made this known at Ita-Osanyin, ward 3, unit 2 in Iperu, Ikenne local government area of the state ,after casting his vote
The faction of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) led by Hon Sikirulai Ogundele had announced the party boycott of the election, alleging the Ogun State Independent National Electoral Commission(OGISIEC) of supporting the other faction of the party to destablise the party in the state.
Penpushing further reports that, in response to the allegation, the Chairman Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC), Babatunde Osibodu, distanced himself from the allegation, arguing that he handed over the forms of the party to the faction with the authentic documents
The Governor still on the boycott by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said he learnt about the boycott and asked authorities of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to find out what went wrong.
“I hear of a purported or supposed boycott and spoke to our team to find out exactly what was going on. What apparently has happened is that one or two parties are factionalised and I believe that the legitimate factions of these other parties were duly recognised by OGSIEC and what I was made to understand was that the party that was not recognised headed to the court and the case was in court until, I believe, on Thursday’, he stated.
“And from what I understand, the court dismissed the suit that was challenging the OGSIEC accepting the other faction and following that, I think perhaps, to save face the faction that lost out now decided to boycott’, Abiodun said.
“You cannot be boycotting a process that you are not even a participant in, so I didn’t understand that, but really, I’m not a lawyer, I’m not speaking for OGSIEC, I’m not speaking on behalf of any party’, Abiodun stated,
‘I can only speak on behalf of my party and my administration, I believe OGSIEC has done everything within their power, within their mandate to be very transparent and to ensure that the playing field is as level as it should be for every single party that expressed desire to be part of this election”
Penpushing also reports that the Governor while speaking further gave assurance that the newly elected chairmen would get best support from his administration and respect the autonomy of the local government
“My administration will ensure that the local government chairmen are given the opportunity to administer over their local government as enshrined in the constitution. I will not want to speak about what happened before I assumed office’
‘But I believe that what currently obtained at the local government level is night and day compared to what happened before I assumed office and that is why you can see the evidence and the testimonials of what the local government caretaker committees have achieved in their 18 to 20 months in office because we have ensured that there is execution of projects which are funded in line with the constitution’.
“We will respect the autonomy of the local government in line with what we at the Governors’ Forum have decided to do and how we decided to implement it.I believe that the local government are a tier of government that should be given a free hand to run their show’
‘They are the closest administrative political office, they are closer to the grassroots, they are able to make that impact in the grassroots and they are much closer than any of us. This administration will give all the needed support to our local government councils to ensure that they function in line with the constitution”,Abiodun said
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