LG Polls: Opposition Parties Give Gov Amosun 2-Month Ultimatum

Opposition parties in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, are warming up for a legal battle with the state government. They have given Governor Ibikunle Amosun 60 days to conduct council polls or face legal action.

The position of the opposition parties was made known by the Secretary of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, Ogun State, Mr. Sarafadeen Ogunwodu.

Addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital, yesterday, Ogunwodu said, “for almost a year that Amosun had been sworn in as governor of Ogun State, he has not made any concrete efforts to conduct elections into the local councils.”

He said the CNPP learnt through a reliable source that Governor Amosun has planned to extend the tenure of the transition chairmen of the councils for three months. This move, he said CNPP has vowed to resist through a legal action.

“For the fact that Amosun had inaugurated the OGSIEC does not mean that the governor really meant that elections would take place in the council areas as internal crises in his party had not allowed him to support the Commission in carrying out its duties,” he said.

Ogunwoolu, who is also the Chairman of United Nigeria Peoples Party, UNPP in the state, further stated, “I was informed that the Ogun State House of Assembly had planned to extend the tenure of the Local Government Transition Chairmen by another three months on Tuesday this week, a plot that could have been carried out but was postponed due to protests from some politicians from Ipokia and Yewa North local governments.

“Nobody is saying there should not be adequate preparation or allowing the law to take its course, but we are against the undemocratic move of the governor, who failed to fund the OGSIEC to carry out its constitutional duty.”

Also speaking with P.M.NEWS, a former member of the State House of Assembly and stalwart of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Fasiu Bakenne, said that extending the tenure of the Transition Chairmen arbitrarily is an aberration of democratic norms.

He said Senator Amosun who swore to protect the Constitution should know that it is against democracy to allow unelected persons run a local government for almost a year.

He further state: “that is why the Chairmen are not performing because they are not answerable to anybody, why can’t he change them if he knows that he is not ready to conduct elections into the local governments?”

Meanwhile, no fewer than 13 political parties in Ogun State have distanced themselves from the recent alleged plan to team up against Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s government and his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, ahead of the local government elections.

The parties under the aegis of Inter-party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), Ogun State Chapter, in a release signed by its Chairman, Patrick Oyatayo and Secretary, Biola Martins, described a publication by only two political parties as a child’s play.

—Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta