Parties oppose PDP’s call for Osun REC’s removal

Opposition parties in Osun State are divided over the call for the removal of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Dr. Rufus Akeju over his alleged romance with the ruling All Progressives Party, APC, in the state.
The leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had been calling for the removal of Akeju from the state, threatening not to participate in any election supervised by him.
But a section of the opposition parties under the aegis of the Alliance of Collaborating Political Parties, ACPP, described PDP allegations as scandalous and baseless.
The parties that make up the ACPP include the National Conscience Party, NCP, United Progressive Party, UPP, Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, African Democratic Congress, ADC and United Democratic Party, UDP.
Others are Peoples for Democratic Change, PDC, African People Alliance, APA, Citizens Popular Party, CPP, Mega Progressive Peoples Party, MPPP and New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP.
The parties in a statement signed by their chairmen noted that the grouse the PDP allegedly had against Akeju was his refusal to be manipulated in the 2011 general elections in favour of any political party in the state.
The statement read in part; “For the sake of emphasis, elections were conducted in this state in 2011 to the state House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate,  and the office of the President, the then ACN won all the 26 seats in the House of Assembly, all the three senate seats and the nine House of Representatives with ACN Presidential candidate winning in our dear state.
“The election then was peaceful, free and fair without any hitch. To cap it up, none of these elements crying blue murder had the temerity to approach a tribunal to challenge the result of the election.”
The parties called on INEC not to be distracted by the antics of the PDP, but rather concentrate on their sacred duty of ensuring free, fair and credible election in the state this year.

vanguard