With one week left until the governorship and state House of Assembly elections in the country, the Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed worries over the alleged proliferation of illegal arms and ammunition in the state.
The party has also appealed to the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj Gen Babagana Monguno (retd) and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba to give immediate and urgent attention to the demilitarisation of the state.
The appeal was made in a statement by the acting chairman of the party, Tajudeen Lawal obtained by DRILLOGIST on Sunday.
Lawal in the statement said: “I doubt it if there is any credible, free and fair election that can be held in Osun State under the present heavily militarized condition by the PDP thugs.”
Appealing directly to the NSA and IGP, Lawal said: “We enjoin your good offices to handle the suggested withdrawal of the illegal arms and ammunition from the PDP political thugs before the House of Assembly elections this Saturday with dispatch.
“What we are saying is that the electorate should be allowed to vote for their choice of candidates without coercion.”
The APC and the PDP have been at loggerheads and have been accusing each other of masterminding the violence that attended the presidential and National Assembly elections of February 25.
Meanwhile, the electorate in Osun State expressed confidence in the exercise.
Recall that on Saturday, February 25, 2023, Nigerians came out en masse to exercise their civic duty in the presidential and National Assembly elections.
In Osun State, the PDP defeated the APC and cleared all the seats in the National Assembly elections.
Also, the party defeated all other parties in the presidential election in the state.
Timothy Fabule, a cleric speaking to DRILLOGIST, hoped that the success recorded during the presidential and National Assembly elections would be replicated during the coming state House of Assembly election.
Fabule, who observed that despite the reports of pockets of violence in other parts of the country, the polls in Osun was hitch-free, called on politicians and political parties to consider the electorate in whatever they did.
“The politicians should realise that without the people, they are nobody. So, truly, if the people are the ones they claim to represent, then they should not see elections as a do-or-die affair.
“If they lose now, they should go back, re-strategise and come back again in four years, ” he said.
