OSUN LG ELECTION: GROUP OPPOSES OSSIEC CHAIRMAN, ABIOYE
Read Time:3 Minute, 54 Second
Ahead of the February 22 local government election in Osun State, The Osun Masterminds (TOM) has criticized Hashim Abioye, the Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC).
During the January 2025 State of the State Address on Friday, TOM’s representative, Ayo Ologun, told journalists that OSSIEC, under Abioye’s leadership, is unfit to oversee the election.
Ologun pointed out that Abioye was previously a member of the Osun PDP’s legal team, a House of Representatives aspirant, and a state government appointee before assuming his current role as OSSIEC Chairman.
He said, “We all know Hashim Abioye was part of the legal team of the PDP and contested for House of Representatives under the PDP. He was an appointee of the PDP before he decided to contest and then resigned to become the Chairman of OSSIEC.”
Ologun, while alluding to one of the reasons why elections conducted in Nigeria are often not acceptable, added that it is because of the character of the person appointed to conduct the election.
He said, “You cannot be partisan and expect to deliver a free and fair election. It will never happen. While we commend the efforts being made by OSSIEC in ensuring that the election is properly conducted in terms of orientation, publicity, and engagement with different groups, for us, we cannot build something from nothing and expect it to be fine.”
“Local government elections in Osun State are long overdue. Whatever shenanigans are going on within the APC and PDP are their business, but for us, the appointment of Hashim Abioye is illegal. It remains our stance and is not going to change.”
In response to the comments, OSSIEC Chairman Hashim Abioye dismissed the allegations of bias and partisanship thrown at him by The Osun Masterminds.
Abioye, who stated that the allegations of illegality were erroneously pinned on him, emphasized that he had not committed any crimes.
He said, “An illegality is a criminality. What crime has been committed by being a member of a political party in the past and later resigning one’s membership? I learned their Executive Director is a Professor—I don’t know whether it is in Law, but I know he is a lawyer in the fold of the acclaimed ‘Osun Masterminds’.”
“So sad if a lawyer does not know what an illegality connotes. I have since dropped the garb and garment of a politician. The Masterminds or whoever they are should let Osun people know where they were when about 2 billion naira of Osun people’s funds were desperately and deliberately wasted on the YES/NO election conducted under the past administration in 2022.”
Abioye alleged that the group looked away when the immediate past OSSIEC Chairman joined the campaign train of the APC while simultaneously serving on the Commission Board.
“The ‘know-it-all Osun Masterminds’ were sleeping and nowhere to be found when OSSIEC, under the past administration, brazenly defiled the law establishing OSSIEC itself, deliberately violated the Electoral Act and the Constitution—an obvious criminality. Who is genuinely serving the people of Osun between the Masterminds, who were never in existence at the time the illegality under the past administration regarding the Osun 2022 local government election was being fought out in court by Hashim Abioye, who led the legal team then?”
“Our friends, the ‘Osun Masterminds,’ looked away when the immediate past Chairman of OSSIEC and members were all over joining campaign trains of the APC while at the same time serving on the Board of OSSIEC.”
Abioye lamented that The Osun Masterminds had failed to appreciate the present OSSIEC for its actions, innovations, and upholding the best standards in the local government election process.
He also alleged that TOM suppressed and feigned ignorance of OSSIEC’s activities, which had been widely applauded.
“The Osun Masterminds found no cause to appreciate OSSIEC under the present leadership. They suppressed the fact of the administrative and managerial best practices we have brought to bear on the Commission. They feigned ignorance of our activities, which reasonable individuals, bodies, and organizations have applauded. Our media friendliness and our transparency from the start till now did not appeal to the ‘Masterminds’.”
“Rather, they have joined in the sentiments and propaganda of some people singing bad about Hashim Abioye. The Masterminds should remove their veil and tell us who they actually are and what they stand for.
“Nobody would crucify them for coming out boldly to publicly associate with their political party. What moral stand and stance does Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, especially, have, to badmouth Hashim Abioye when he himself had been an aspirant several times on the platform of the APC?”
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0