2023: Presidential, National Elections Held under Siege, Says Osun APC
Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday condemned in strong terms the tensed atmosphere under which the presidential and National Assembly elections were conducted in the state last Saturday.
The APC in the state decried the pocket of lawlessness, violence and extra-judicial killings that trailed the electoral process in the state as manifested in the severe heinous attacks on the members of the opposition party the state before, during and after the polls, where 15 persons were allegedly killed and several others injured in the process.
This is even as APC in the state rejected the results of the election in some parts of the state, arguing that they were not the true reflections of the people’s wish.
The party commended the electorate in the state for their unflinching support, resilience, forthrightness and strong resistance “in the face of intimidation and physical life-threatening events from the ‘daredevils’ of the ruling party before, during and after the elections in the state.”
The APC in the state urged its members to remain calm just as it maintained that it would challenge the results of the elections and seek redress through legal means.
Addressing a press conference at the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Office in Osogbo, the state APC acting Chairman, Hon. Tajudeen Lawal, bemoaned the ugly incidence of extra-judicial killings and palpable mayhem unleashed on the people of the state before, during and after the election, saying it was a clear indication that the PDP-led government in the state was at war against the opposition parties, particularly the APC.
He expressed displeasure at the way and manner many of his party’s members and admirers were maimed, harassed, assaulted, humiliated and dehumanised in the name of winning an election.
According to him, “The entire structure of the APC and its members in the state were denied a level play ground to canvass for votes before the elections as it is on record that so many of the party’s members were either killed, maimed, attacked or run out of their abodes by the PDP hoodlums.”
Lawal bemoaned how a sizeable number of his party’s members were needlessly and cruelly killed “by the notorious and daredevil PDP thugs who were operating unhindered across the state before and during the elections.
