Following Friday’s Osun election petition tribunal judgment in favour of former governor Adegboyega Oyetola, protesters have blocked major roads within the State capital, Osogbo.
Daily Post reports that the protesting residents of the State have blocked the busy Osogbo-Ikirun road, Gbongan-Ibadan road, Oke-Fia, Old Garage, and Freedom Park.
They were seen on Saturday, January 28, 2023, disrupting the free flow of traffic, harassing and beating up minibus (korope) drivers.
Commercial motorcyclists were not spared as well.
The development caused many commuters to be stranded, just as many business owners who owned shops around the axis did not open for business transactions.
However, the protests did not spread to residential areas as daily activities went on as usual without disturbances
The protests also spread to towns like Ikirun, Ilesa, Ilobu, Iwo, Ile-Ife, and other towns where residents annoyed with the tribunal judgment also trooped out enmasse to protests.
Meanwhile, the Osun All Progressives Congress, APC, expressing concern has urged the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman to intervene and put a stop to the threat to lives and properties rocking Osun.
This was made known in a press statement put out by Tajudeen Lawal, the Osun APC acting Chairman.
Lawal also wanted the IGP to urgently prevail on the leadership of the State police command to prioritize its statutory function of the protection of lives and property of the residents of the State.
According to him, “Information authoritatively has it that the PDP political thugs have formed themselves into cells in Osogbo, the State capital, where they were burning tyres in the middle of the roads amidst intimidation of innocent people.
“It is strange that the police in the State are looking away while these agents of death are perpetrating their political violence on the innocent people of the State.
“If the leadership of the police does not tackle the lingering insecurity issue headlong, there is a temptation by discerning minds to observe, suspect, believe, and conclude that the police are working in cahoots with the PDP and the recently sacked Governor Adeleke to terrorise the opposition members in the State,” the APC chairman opined.
Yemisi Opalola, the Osun Police Command spokesperson, when contacted stated that the situation was now under control.
In her words, “More men have been deployed to the identified spots where roads were blocked to traffic. The situation is under control.”
Osun: ‘Stop dreaming of returning to power’ – Human Rights Activist Tells Oyetola
Adeniyi Sulaiman, a human rights activist, has advised the immediate past governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, and his supporters led by the current speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Mr Timothy Owoeye, to stop dreaming of coming back to govern the state in the next four years.
The rights activist was reacting to the recent insinuations of Oyetola and Owoeye to stage a come back to power in the state through the back door after losing the July 16, 2022, governorship election to Governor Ademola Adeleke.
In a signed statement by Sulaiman and made available to journalists on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, he told the both leaders of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in the state “to stop their evil dreaming of coming back to governance of the state for this electioneering and governing period of Governor Adeleke administration.”
Sulaiman, who is the executive chairman, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice, CHRSJ, urged them to accept their loss at the July 16, 2022, governorship election in good faith and prepare for the 2026 governorship election in Osun State.
According to him, ” Thinking of manipulating the electoral and judicial process if Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the presidential election to stage a comeback to power through the back door cannot be fruitful for Gboyega Oyetola because the law in respect of Electoral Act 2022 has settled everything, and no president can manipulate such electoral process again.
“Nigeria is not a banana republic where law would be made to satisfy the whims and caprices of Oyetola and Tinubu. For instance, all the opposition governors the courts ruled in their favour led to the conduct of staggering governorship elections in the country today were during the period of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidency and heaven did not fall.”
Sulaiman emphatically stated that the people of Osun State had given four years mandate to govern the state to Governor Adeleke on July 16, 2022, and God had stamped the mandate on November 27, 2022, stating that no living mortal can change it because “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
Speaking on the ongoing Osun State Election Petition Tribunal, the pro-democracy activist noted that the election tribunal was not set up to favour any party but to deal with post-election issues, adding that the issues before the tribunal in respect of the July 16, 2022, governorship election were very clear, and the error of over voting in alleged six polling units would affect all the political parties that participated in the election.
