By Francis Ezediuno With the 2022 Osun gubernatorial election a few days away, residents of the State are apprehensive as to how it ...
By Francis Ezediuno
With the 2022 Osun gubernatorial election a few days away,
residents of the State are apprehensive as to how it will pan out.
Most of them, who spoke with DAILY POST, are concerned over
the level of violence being witnessed in the State ahead of the polls.
Things worsened in the last days of June as the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in Ijesa land accused the All Progressives Congress
(APC) of colluding with the police to indiscriminately arrest its members,
while the APC accused the PDP of endangering the life of the State governor,
Adegboyega Oyetola and disrupting PVC distribution in Ilesa West Local
Government.
Jamiu Babatunde, an APC chieftain in Osogbo stated that the
political atmosphere is tense and the violence and intimidation being displayed
by the two major political parties was just a means of scaring people.
Babatunde was of the opinion that the Osun gubernatorial
election would be conducted without a hitch.
He expressed optimism that all the stories of violence and
disruption observed statewide would abate once the election is held and the
result announced.
An APC member, Adewale Maruf stated that the PDP was just
being unnecessarily alarmist about the election.
He insisted that the election would be the best in the
history of the State going by the enlightenment by all parties that would
contest the poll.
While commending the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) for their efforts and the level of work carried out towards
ensuring a free, fair, peaceful, inclusive and conclusive poll, he maintained
that Osun wanted peace and they were going to go all out to achieve it.
On his own, Steven Oladungoye, an Osun-based media
professional, expressed optimism that the election would be better than others.
He explained that despite the noise and apprehension, the
electorates knew what they wanted.
He also lamented that vote buying was still the order of the
day despite all steps taken to curb electoral malpractices.
Adeseye Akeem, an Osogbo-based activist, in his opinion,
stated that from the onset, there have been signs that the Osun gubernatorial
election will be flawed.
“Look at the way a popular commissioner in the State has
been going with uniformed and armed policemen and terrorising members of
another political party all because of a day’s exercise.
“You can also see what the gubernatorial candidate of the
opposition party has been saying about being ready to spend money and getting
set to return fire for fire.
“Do all these signs show that these politicians are ready
for a peaceful poll? No!
“Even the police have been accused of being biased. Amotekun
too has been tainted. Nobody trusts anybody again,” he said.
While revealing that he was aware that all the political
parties have signed different peace accords, he maintained that many of them
will not stay true to the statement on the document they signed.
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