For the State of the Living Spring, Osun, peace seems to have become an endangered species, almost every. The mid-mainland state, noted for its serenity and agrarian residents for long, is now fast receding into notoriety of a “Red Flag” tag by the nation’s security agencies. This negative profiling actually hit the red line when the campaigns for the last July 16 governorship election kicked off and the tempo became more intense since the conclusion of the election and announcement of the results.

From Ikire, Iwo in the southern flank to Ila Orangun, Oyan, in the northern hemisphere, from Ilesa, Ile Ife in the east to Ikirun, Iree, in the west, the state is noted for its peaceful and joyful dwellings. A majorly agrarian communities, with a rather fragile internal economy, only relying on the monthly salaries and wages of Federal and State workers. But now sadly, a State where the various crumbs and pecks of political hangers-on and patronage are fast becoming cancerous and constituting a direct threat to the peace of the usually happy people.

Although Nigeria dropped to number ninety-six in the United Nations Organization (UNO) backed 2022 happiest countries rated by UNESCO, an arm of the World body, further reports picked Osun State as the happiest State in Nigeria.

The State was adjudged first with a score of 21.96, while Oyo State trailed with 22.19 scores.

The reports presented the State in bright light: Having the least unemployment rate in Nigeria where national unemployment is at an all-time high helps Osun state rank as the least miserable (or happiest) state in the country.

Osun, which is an inland southwest state, has an unemployment rate of 10.07 percent and an inflation rate of 11.89 percent.

The state’s economy is largely based on agriculture, and in 2018 Osun had an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N2,206 per head according to BudgIT, while it also ranks 13th out of 37 states (plus FCT) on Human Development Index based on the National Human Development Report 2018.

As at half-year 2019, Osun had an IGR of N10.205bn, the 18th highest for states without counting Abuja, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data shows.

In conclusion, the reports said that Osun State residents are the happiest people in Nigeria. 

Happiness is infectious in the state. Drumming, singing, and a plethora of churches and mosques were what they were renowned for until internal crises erupted in the two major political parties in the state. The All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). All attempts by some disgruntled decampees from these parties to foist either of Labour, Accord or Advanced Democratic parties failed totally. The battle is between the APC, the government in power, and the PDP, getting set to take over the reins of power. But then there is a logjam: The petition at the Election Petition Tribunal and another case at the nation’s apex court, the Supreme Court, looks dicey.

The state has never slipped into chaos and anarchy before, until the two major parties, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), started experiencing internal convulsions. APC road to Golgotha started in 2018 when it could not properly manage the selection of its governorship candidate for the 2018 election. Some aggrieved chieftains left the party to promote Mr. Sheriff Adeoti in ADP. The party only managed to cling unto power, as it won the election with a bare margin of less than 500 votes.

Failure to resolve the impasse till the last July 16 governorship election, however, led the faction, now rebranded itself as The True Progressives (TOP), to overtly aligned with the opposition PDP to inflict an excruciating electoral injury on its parent party, APC. A former governor of the State and a very senior member of the party, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is sympathetic to the cause of TOP members. He has so far refused to be pacified.

The main opposition party, PDP was also having its bazaar of internal schisms. The Pathfinder group led by Wale Ojo, and the Elders group led by a former governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

The two factions produced two governorship candidates, Ademola Adeleke and Dotun Babayemi.

Adeleke was selected at the factional governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun State, held at the Osogbo City Stadium. Similarly, Prince Dotun Babayemi emerged winner of a parallel exercise held at the WOCDIF Centre, also in the state capital.

The party, too, has been unable to manage the crisis. The case is presently at the Apex Court, the Supreme Court.

While the PDP is battling for a court declaration of who is the rightful candidate for the election, the APC/Oyetola is at the State Election Petition Tribunal battling to prove that there were large-scale overvoting in some 149 polling units and also to prove that Adeleke lacks the pre-requisite education qualification to contest the governorship election. A tough battle for all the parties.

Since the conclusion and announcement of the results by INEC, the PDP, with soft sympathy from the embittered splinter group from the All Progressive Congress (APC), has been at loggerheads with the APC-run State Government.

If the bone of contention is not the results of the governorship election, it would be the recruitment of more personnel into the State Teaching Service or the management of the local government councils funds. Now the alarm bell is ringing on the planned local government election fixed for October 15.

The PDP and its allies did not hide their misgivings about the exercise, thus their firm opposition. But the State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) remains adamant. They have the validly enacted Local Government Election Law backing them. So, also is the state government and, by extension, APC.

The Chairman of the Osun State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has raised an alarm of a plan by some groups, led by the opposition, to cause mayhem in the state in order to disrupt the scheduled October 15th local government council elections.

When intimidation and threats of violence failed to dissuade the OSIEC from forging ahead with the plan to conduct the election, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State filed a suit before a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo against the plan by the Osun Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) to conduct local council elections in the state.

Thereafter, the party’s Director of Media in the State, Oladele Oluwabamiji, warned Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the state’s electoral commission against going ahead with the planned election, saying that it is unlawful, illegal, and criminal.

The OSIEC Chairman, Otunba Segun Oladitan, was, however, firm in his response to the PDP’s stand. He described as baseless and unfounded the rumors making the rounds that the body lacked the statutory powers to conduct the election.

When the state electoral body refused to be cowed by such intimidation, the opposition party changed the mode of the attack.

The Party simply called on the nation’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), not to release the updated voters’ register to the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission for the purpose of conducting the local government election.

The PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman in Osun, Dr. Adekunle Akindele, insisted that the planned council election was illegal and unconstitutional. Therefore, he urged INEC not to give any support to OSIEC for the purpose of the planned local government election in the state.

Osun PDP gets caretaker committee

It further read in parts, “We call on INEC to desist from supporting illegality. Any support rendered to OSIEC may tarnish the integrity of the national electoral body. We can confirm that all the court processes and hearing notices in the matter have been served on OSIEC and INEC.

“We reinforce our condemnation of the OSIEC Chairman for his desperation despite the pendency of litigation in court. We express our confidence that the judiciary is up to the task to undo whatever illegality the OSIEC might have perpetrated.”

But reacting to the announcement, the state chairman of the PDP caretaker committee, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, stated clearly that the party would shun the election because it is in conflict with provisions of the new Electoral Act.

Let me use this medium again to remind the defeated governor about the pendency of litigations before the High Court of Osun State and the Federal High Court, Osogbo, in which the legitimacy of the commission as presently constituted, the constitutionality and legality of the planned local government election, amongst others, are being challenged.

“We are not unaware of a recently rushed bill by the Osun State House of Assembly to render life support to the brought-in dead idea of railroading the state into a clearly illegal exercise. But, the law is settled that no state electoral law can override the provisions of the Electoral Act made by the National Assembly of Nigeria.

We cannot but sympathize with the outgoing government for its failures occasioned by arrogance and cluelessness. However, Osun State and indeed the suffering masses in the state cannot be offered as guinea pigs by a man fighting himself over avoidable pitfalls.

“We again reiterate our call on the Inspector General of Police, IGP. Alkali Baba Usman, and the Osun State Commissioner of Police to take proactive steps to nip in the bud the likelihood of a breach of the peace in the state as masses of the state are eager and more than ready to resist any action by the rejected government to further impoverish them by political gangsters without any modicum of morality and conscience.”

The PDP, however, advised the commission and its officials to avoid being used as tools for illegality.

Furious with the opposition party’s unending hecklings, the chairman of OSIEC, Segun Oladitan, said with or without the PDP, the commission will conduct local government elections in the state as scheduled.

He was reacting to the PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman’s decision to boycott the exercise, Oladitan said it would have been better for the party to take part in the exercise to test its legitimacy in court.

He said: “We have not received an official message from the PDP, but they shouldn’t have boycotted the election. We are aware of the sections of the electoral act they are laying claims to that we do not have the right to conduct the election.”

“But instead of boycotting the election, they should have participated and let us go and try the legitimacy of the process in the court of law. Before we fixed a date for the conduct of the local government election, all political parties were involved, and a PDP representative was present.

Mr. Oladitan insisted that the local government election would be conducted as scheduled on October 15.

The chairman of the Commission, Otunba Olusegun Oladuntan, while addressing a press conference in Osogbo on Monday, said all the inhibiting factors and circumstances against the conduct of the elections have been ameliorated.

Oladuntan said while all previous laws on local government elections in the state had been repealed and the Osun State Electoral Law 2022 has been enacted and signed by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, so the coast is now clear for the exercise.

He said that the Commission is now operating with the new law that adopts a presidential system of government as against the repealed parliamentary system as passed by the State House of Assembly.

The Osun State Independent Electoral Commission has said as many as 30 local and international observer groups had indicated interest in monitoring the October 15 local government elections in the state.

Sixteen political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress, will participate in the poll, while the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Peoples Party declined participation in the poll.

The PDP had queried OSIEC’s decision to proceed with the election without complying with the constitutional provisions guiding such an exercise.

Speaking further on the commission’s preparation for the poll, Fanawopo said observer groups that had applied would be screened before being allowed to monitor the poll.

He then declared that the commission had concluded plans to ensure a hitch-free exercise.

“We are accessing their applications already. We have over 30 applications presently. But we will review and prune the number down. We are set for the poll,” Fanawopo said.

With the scheduled date now barely five weeks away, the state chairman of APC has cried out of an alleged “grand and coordinated plan of the opposition to plunge the state into a large-scale mayhem which may shake the state in particular and the nation in general to their foundations has been unveiled.”

The party chieftan claimed that a “discreet intelligence report revealed the plan of the opposition to attack some members and leaders of the ruling party which may result into unfortunate loss of lives and destruction of properties.

In a statement personally signed by Prince Famodun, he alleged that “the intelligence further showed that the PDP, which has indicated its willingness not to partake in the October 15, 2022, local government council election in the state has clandestinely resolved to collaborate with the TOP in order to disrupt the election through violence, thereby making the state ungovernable by the sitting Governor Gboyega Oyetola”.

Part of the mayhem, according to Famodun, would also extend to the sitting of the state governorship election petition tribunal, where “some members and leaders of the ruling APC, particularly our witnesses, would be attacked, run out of the town and subsequently prevented from appearing to witness”.

Famodun went further to allege that if the plan to scuttle the tribunal’s sittings fails, the groups would strike when the tribunal would be pronouncing its judgment, whether it favors the PDP or not, in order to appear to the unsuspecting members of the public that there is a genuine hatred or diminished popularity of the ruling party, which will resort to an uprising against the APC leadership and the administration of Governor Oyetola.

The threat to peace in the State is multifaceted. The PDP is battling its internecine internal wranglings, resulting from the intractable crisis that has engulfed it since it conducted the primary to select its governorship candidate. Prince Dotun Babayemi is claiming to hold a ticket, while Mr. Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke held the right to another. Both the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal failed to resolve the matter before the July 16 governorship election. The victory of the party further raised the stakes. Dotun Babayemi refused all entreaties to step down and headed to the Supreme Court. The party, already badly factionalized, responded. They expelled Babayemi.

These crises rocking the two main parties in the State, www.focusmagazinesoline.com investigations revealed could rupture the fragile peace existing in the State.

A source disclosed to www.focusmagazinesoline.com in Oshogbo during the week that a faction within the PDP, known as Pathfinder, and another within APC, also known as TOP have resolved to use the intra-PDP squabble between Senator Adeleke and Prince Dotun Babayemi to disrupt the peace of the state.

The source further confided in www.focusmagazinesoline.com that the PDP leadership in the state is ready for any attack in the State. He said all the local government areas have been fully mobilized and equipped for any action only awaiting the whistle to blow.

www.focusmagazinesoline.com recalled that since Ademola Adeleke of the PDP was declared the winner of the July 16 Osun State governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the State has slipped into anomic lawlessness, with gory and brutal killings of some innocent individuals.

Two members of the same family were suspectedly killed allegedly by a policeman attached to Senator Ademola Adeleke in Ede, the hometown of the governor-elect, over a disagreement on the sharing formula of the leftover of Senator Adeleke’s governorship election largesse.

Most pathetic was the midday gruesome killing of one Spanner at the Ilesa Garage area of Osogbo, the state capital, by some unidentified thugs shortly after the governorship election. Sadly, the young man was mowed down alongside his seven-year-old daughter. His wife was said to have delivered a new baby that morning.

Since the announcement of the results, harassment of innocent people and destruction of political publicity materials by suspected thugs have become a common feature across Osun State.

Not a few residents of the state are worried by the state’s obvious slide into a political conflagration.

But amidst all these anomalies, and allegations, the Osun State PDP Caretaker Chairman, Akindele Adekunle insisted that all is well in the State of the Living Spring.

He denied his party’s involvement in any nefarious plans to cause mayhem in the State, insisting that rather, it is the APC that had perfected the plot to burn down the State Office of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Osogbo, targeting specifically the strong room where Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines used for the last governorship poll were kept.

The PDP also claimed the APC was raising the alarm of insecurity to force a change of venue of the Tribunal sitting to Abuja because it was scared of the expected ease of verification and consequent invalidation of its claim of over-voting if the Tribunal sittings continue in Osogbo.

The party also alleged that the APC had concluded plans to halt further sitting of the tribunal, while it perfected a plan to expose the BVAS machines to doctoring if the panel sitting should be relocated.

He vehemently reaffirmed his party’s opposition to the muted plan to relocate the sittings of the Tribunal to Abuja. The PDP chairman stated that the ruling party was already searching for evidence to convince the Court of Appeal to approve the relocation.

The party chieftain assured that “Osun State is fully secured. The Tribunal sitting is ongoing without incident. Despite the shamelessness of a state government indicting itself with fake alarm, we reiterate that there is no justification for the push for relocation except the fear of failure of the APC’s defective petition,” the PDP concluded.

The APC immediately reacted to the PDP’s allegation through Chief Bisi Taiwo who described the claim as “spurious, laughable, gibberish, balderdash, jabberwocky and only fit for the realm of a mere composition from an idle hand”.

He claimed that the allegation further confirms the fact that not everyone who passed through a school is qualified to be classified as being educated.

“How on earth could someone who calls himself the state party caretaker chairman of a party be spreading such fallacies for reasons which could not be far from having an ulterior motive? He urged Dr. Adekunle to stop exposing his ignorance of the workings of the INEC.

“It is a pity that the level of educational attainment of the embattled Osun State PDP caretaker state chairman does not educate him to know that INEC operates a central server in its national headquarters where the details of the governorship election are being safely kept,” he said.

APC urged the PDP chairman should be educated further that there is no amount of atrocities perpetrated against any part of any state INEC office that is capable of distorting the details of the governorship election.

He then enjoined the unsuspecting members of the society should be wary of fallacious stories from the cooking jar of this Ondo State-born Osun State caretaker committee state chairman of the PDP who does not have a stake in the state.

The beauty of the whole thing is that the composed story which lacks an iota of an element of truth has fallen flat without any capability to either sit or fly.

The APC’s spokesman also denied the allegation by the PDP that the Osun APC is working towards the relocation of the governorship election tribunal to Abuja, describing it “as a mere figment of the imagination of the rumour peddler”.

According to him the question to ask is how wherever the tribunal is relocated to would be the business of the APC when its confidence in the court of law remains undoubted come rain or shine?

He stated that the APC/Oyetola would prefer the tribunal to have its sittings in Oshogbo to save costs, but wondered why the “needless fidgeting and fuss of the Osun PDP over wherever the tribunal deems fit to ease its sessions is an indication that the PDP has something fundamental and spectacular to hide about the governorship election.

As of Sunday (11 September), there were indications that the sittings of the Election Petition Tribunal would be shifted to Abuja for security reasons. All efforts by www.focusmagazinesoline.com to speak with the State Commissioner for Police were not successful, but we learned from sources that the security reports did not recommend sittings of the Tribunal in the State capital to prevent violence, protect lives and properties and avoid breakdown of law and order

Security tension in the State

Pastor Wale Jesujoba in Oshogbo expressed his apprehension over the tense situation in the State. He told www.focusmagazinesoline.com that “I may not have access to security or intelligence reports. But the signs are quite foreboding”

He said of late he has been noticing so many vehicles moving around the state without registration number plates. This is against the Inspector General of Police order.

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, had on July 20 ordered a total ban on all use of Police SPY Vehicle Number Plates by vehicle owners across the states of the federation without exception.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said in a statement titled, ‘Internal security: IGP bans use of spy number plates nationwide – Directs reversal to original registered number plates, seizure of SPY plates’.

The statement read, “This is irrespective of whether it is authorized, or not, as all authorizations are hereby revoked indefinitely.

“This order is necessary to forestall the continuous disregard for traffic rules and regulations and other extant laws guiding road use by individuals hiding under the privileges of SPY police number plates.

The IGP has therefore directed that police officers and officers of other security agencies attached to VIPs who use the SPY number plates should ensure prompt compliance with this directive or risk being arrested for violation of the order.

“Meanwhile, the IGP has directed Commissioners of Police in the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, as well as their supervisory Assistant Inspectors General of Police, to give full effect to the directives as contained above.

“The IGP specifically directed the AIGs and CPs to ensure that all SPY number plates currently in use are confiscated henceforth but the owners of such vehicles should not be arrested unless they are police officers or officers of other security agencies on escort duties.

“The IGP however warned that while carrying out these assignments, officers must ensure the rights and privileges of citizens are respected in line with the laws of the land and in accordance with international best practices.

“Other security agencies and members of the public are enjoined to cooperate with the Police in this regard as the moves are aimed at strengthening our internal security.”

Also, worried, an Oshogbo-based journalist, Chief Bisi Taiwo alerted all the security agencies to the prevalence of high numbers of private vehicles still moving around the state without registration number plates.

He called the attention of the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olawale Olokode, to the upsurge in the number of private vehicles without registration numbers, covered number plates, and Police SPY number plates across the state contrary to the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Alkali Baba Usman, a few months ago.

Taiwo in an interview with www.focusmagazinesoline.com in Oshogbo said “what is at stake is the security of lives of the citizens. It is important for the police authorities and their sister statutory security agencies to treat the issue with dispatch in order to safeguard the lives of the innocent people of Osun State.

“It is more worrisome that within the past one month or thereabouts, the number of such non-identifiable vehicles is higher during the evenings with their drivers driving with reckless abandon along the street of Osogbo.

“Checkmating the excesses of such non-conformist drivers irrespective of their social standing in the society will go a long way in preventing or minimizing commission of crimes with impunity”, the media guru remarked.

Olabisi also cautioned government officials and other individuals who do not fall within the category of those legally permitted to use such security number plates to quickly make an amend in order not to run foul of the law of the land.

He reminded all the residents of the state to continue to cooperate with the police authorities as security is a joint task of all and sundry.

INEC’s double BVAS reports issue

The results of the July 16 governorship election as declared by the INEC is currently being challenged at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Oshogbo. The petitioners, APC/Oyetola is alleging massive over-voting in 149 wards across the State. Adeleke has mobilized 52 senior lawyers to defend him against the almost 1,500 paged petition submitted by the governor.

But now there is a lacuna in the claims and counter-claims. The INEC supposedly issued a Certified True Copy of the BVAS used to conduct the election to APC/Oyetola after making all necessary payments and fulfilling other requirements, but later went on and allegedly issued a different one to Adeleke. The electoral body claimed the one it was yet to synchronize the data before issuing the document to APC/Oyetola.

The national electoral body, INEC, might have inadvertently authored a delicate controversy in its issuance of BVAV to the parties. The Certified True Copy of the BVAS Report issued to PDP is at variance with the one it earlier issued to APC and Governor Oyetola. The electoral body is yet to convincingly prove the anomaly.

Even when confronted at the Election Petition Tribunal, it laboured fruitlessly to prove its case convincingly.

APC and Oyetola have snapped on this lacuna and at the tribunal. They countered that INEC should be estopped from asserting a contrary view or denying the correctness of the contents of the BVAS Report it issued to them.

The Petitioners (APC/Oyetola) relied on the fact that the BVAS Report was duly issued to them by INEC. What are the implications of this INEC’s action on the July 16 Governorship Election held in Osun State? While it is advisable we allow the Tribunal to adjudicate on the merit of the case, for the purpose of our casual discussion, it is instructive we shed some light on what estoppel, cited by the Petitioners, means.

Adebayo Adedeji, an Oshogbo-bases legal practitioner explained to www.focusmagazinesoline.com that the basic concept of estoppel is that where Person (A) has caused Person (B) to act on the basis of a particular state of affairs, A is prevented from going back on the words or conduct which led B to act on that basis if certain conditions are satisfied.

He related the foregoing to the APC/Oyetola’s case at hand, he said it “does it mean INEC is bound by estoppel since, based on the available information, it issued the BVAS Report to the petitioners after they had met all the conditions stipulated in Section 104 of the Evidence Act 2011? Let’s consider Section 169 of the Evidence Act 2011 for a probable answer. The Part X of the Act ( Presumptions and Estoppel) states that “When one person has either by virtue of an existing court judgment, deed or agreement, or by his declaration, act or omission, intentionally caused or permitted another person to believe a thing to be true and to act upon such belief, neither he nor his representative in interest shall be allowed, in any proceedings between himself and such person or such person’s representative in interest, to deny the truth of that thing.”

He further cited the case of Peter Enahoro v. O’cerons Limited & Ors (2014) LPELR-22841(CA), the Doctrine of Estoppel is also articulated thus:

 ” (a) If a man by his words or conduct willfully endeavours to cause another to believe in a certain state of things which the first knows to be false, and if the second believes in such state of things and acts upon the belief he who knowingly made the false statement is estopped from averring afterward that such state of things does not exist at the time.

(b) If a man either in express terms or by conduct makes a representation to another of the existence of a state of facts, which he intends to be acted upon in a certain way in the belief of the existence of such state of facts, to the damage of him who so believes and acts, the first is estopped from denying the existence of such a state of facts.

(c) If a man, whatever his real meaning may be, so conducts himself that a reasonable man would take his conduct to mean a certain representation of facts and that it was a true representation and facts and the latter was intended to act upon it as in a particular way and he with such belief does act in that way to his damage, the first is estopped from denying the facts as represented. See Olalekan v. Wema Bank Plc (Supra). See also: Joe Iga & Ors v. Ezekiel Amakiri & Ors (1976) 11.”

Considering the striking examples cited above and in view of the pleading of the Petitioners that INEC was authorised to issue the BVAS Report after the Petitioners had met the statutory requirements, is it not logically satisfying to maintain that INEC is tied by the Doctrine of Estoppel as to the BVAS Report it issued to APC and Oyetola? Only the Tribunal can answer this question.

www.focusmagazinesoline.com (C 2022)