The Osun State Government has dismissed the security recommendation from the Nigeria Police Force, which called for the postponement of the local government election set for Saturday (today).
On Friday, the Nigeria Police urged the suspension of the election, citing credible intelligence they had gathered.
A statement from the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, revealed that the intelligence suggested a high possibility of violence and significant security risks if the election proceeded as planned in the state.
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However, in a statement issued late Friday by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, the state government explained that its decision to reject the police’s advice was based on the principles of the rule of law and opposition to police partisanship.
While acknowledging the security warning, the state government stated that after reviewing the advice, it found the police’s proposal to be biased, partisan, and contrary to democratic principles.
The statement reads, “The pretence of the service to be serving the public good while actually promoting the illegality of the APC reinforces our rejection of a Greek gift.
“From the beginning of this face off, the police has breached best practices by its open support for the All Progressives Congress, a party that is pushing for illegality through a non-existing court order. The whole world knows how the police actively aided the APC to enforce a reinstatement order that was never issued by any court of law.
“A law enforcement agency has suddenly become a partisan wing of a political party, the APC, thereby losing all toga of a fair law agency. The negative role of the police to ignite the current face off made its advice a poison chocolate.
“Beyond the above, we also call the attention of the police to the court judgment of today. It contains three orders which affirm vacancies in Osun councils by authenticating the sacking of the APC council chieftains directed the police and other security agencies to provide security for the election and gave go ahead to fresh LG elections by Saturday 22nd.”
The state government also accused the police of pursuing partisan interests rather than obeying court order and working against the rule of law.
“Instead of the police to obey court order, the service is regrettably pursuing its partisan line by actively working against rule of law as espoused by today’s court ruling.
“If the police chose to disobey court orders, the Osun State government will not go against rule of law, hence the decision of the state government to support the state electoral commission to conduct a credible free and fair elections tomorrow.
“We thank the police for their advice. We respectfully turned down the request while we urged Osun voters to peacefully exercise their voting rights on Saturday.”
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