The Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday restated its boycott of the local government election taking place across the state this Saturday.
The opposition party accused the chairman and other members of the Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission of being card-carrying members of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The party had earlier lost a suit it filed at the Federal High Court sitting in Akure, the State capital, seeking to stop the conduct of the council polls.
The presiding judge, Folashade Olubanjo, in her ruling, said the federal high court did not have the jurisdiction to hear cases involving the conduct of local government election under the purview of state governments and its agencies.
Justice Olubanjo said it would amount to “judicial pettiness” to proceed with the suit when issues on the dissolution of the former councils were still pending before the Supreme Court.
She also said proceeding with the interlocutory injunction on the case was a mere academic exercise as facts deduced from arguments and counter arguments showed that the suits were gross abuse of court process.
Unperturbed by the ruling, the State APC Director of Publicity, Steve Otaloro, in a statement in Akure, said there was no authentic voters register for the election, arguing that the register available for use had not been reviewed since the last general election as required by the law.
The APC also said the state governor, Olusegun Mimiko and the PDP-led government in the State could not be trusted to do anything right.
“Many times the governor has deceived the people and this election cannot be different. Dr. Olusegun Mimiko is highly deficient in character, integrity and fairness that he cannot be trusted to midwife any free and fair electoral process”, APC alleged.
“To participate is to help massage Mimiko’s ego, support illegality and to allow ourselves to be distracted from our singular mission of wresting power from the PDP in a few months’ time”.
The party also cited a subsisting case on the matter at the Supreme Court by aggrieved elected chairmen under the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu-led administration, whose tenure Mimiko terminated on assumption of office in 2009.
“The governor who had therefore refrained from conducting the local government election for the past seven years for this reason cannot suddenly rush to conduct the same election in less than ten months to the end of his tenure”, the party submitted.
“The Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) is composed of PDP card-carrying members. We cannot participate in an election where the Chairman of ODIEC, Prof. Olugbenga Ige and his team are registered members of the PDP.
“Worse still, those who would preside over our complaints after the election are known sympathisers of the ruling PDP government”.
APC further stated that the election was a waste of tax payers’ money especially at a time when the state civil servants were groaning over unpaid five months salaries, while the government was committing huge resources of unknown amount to an election.
“We therefore call on all our sympathisers to remain peaceful and stay at home during these election hours”, the party advised.
“They should use the opportunity to reflect on the state of affairs of our state and pray for the deliverance of the state from its present day tormentors.
“In the meantime, not minding the outcome of our application for injunction in the court, we would continue to use all legal means to challenge this outgoing government of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and his party in the wild goose chase they are taking in the name of local government election”, the party said.
Ondo LG Polls: APC Issues Stay At Home Order To Supporters
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