Supreme Court judgement: We are not under pressure – OSSIEC

Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC, Hashim Abioye, has declared that the Commission is under no pressure and legal hindrance to go ahead with its already scheduled timetable/activities for the conduct of local government elections in February 2025.

Abioye also maintained that there was no plan to bring forward the date of the election as doing so would be a blatant illegality which would negatively affect the foundation of the election.

The chairman made this disclosure in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Yemi Badru and made available to Newspot on Friday in Osogbo.

The OSSIEC position is coming after insinuations from different quarters arose as a result of the Supreme Court judgment of Thursday, June 11, 2024, which granted full autonomy to local governments.

The chairman in the statement said, “Notice of election goes to the very root of the election. Any defect in the notice will knock off the election as it will lack any valid foundational basis.

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“The notice we have given was in line with the law. Both the Electoral Act, 2022 and OSSIEC Law, 2022 provide for at least 360 days before the date of the election. This we have done since February, 2024. We are therefore in a good stead to go ahead with our activities.”

The Chairman clarified that, “there is no pressure anywhere. Where is the pressure? I will want reasonable people and discerning minds to take an excursion to the notice we issued and published on 19th February this year.

“Let anyone show me any subsisting court order prohibiting state electoral bodies from conducting or further conducting local council elections in their respective States.

“As far as OSSIEC is concerned, the radar is clear. Some people are deliberately misinforming the public or ignorantly postulating that today’s Supreme Court judgement has stripped the SIECs of their constitutionally guaranteed electoral mandate. There is nothing of such.

“In the case of OSSIEC, it is the judiciary that sacked purported council officials under the immediate past administration in Osun State that have appealed the judgment. And worse for them, there were two judgements of the same Federal High Court that sacked them, they appealed one, which is still pending, the other one they left unappealed.

“The bottom line of the judicial pronouncement that invalidated their election was that the notice given by OSSIEC under the past leadership in 2022 fell short of the provisions of both the Electoral Act and the OSSIEC Law. What is more! What is the fuss!”

While assuring that there was no cause for worry, Abioye said the process would go as outlined in the schedule of activities for the forthcoming Osun local council elections.

He said, “By the timetable/schedule of activities issued by the Commission, conduct of political party primaries is slated to hold between 22nd July, 2024 and 6th August, 2024, and mandatorily, any political party willing to participate in the election must give at least 21 days notice to the Commission to monitor their primaries. In line with the timetable, political parties have started picking dates and notifying the Commission about their respective primaries.

“The said notice, timetable/schedule of activities was issued at a time the recently determined local council autonomy suit had not been conceived not to talk of being filed at all, before the Supreme Court.

“You can see the difference. We are not desperate, and as I have always promised, we will not falter on the side of the law in the process of the election.”