The opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, has criticised Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke for appointing a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Hashim Abioye, as the Chairman of Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC.
APC chairman in the state, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Monday, said that there was no justification for the appointment of an appointee of the Adeleke administration for the sensitive position of the OSSIEC chairman.
Lawal ssid that with the appointment of one of Adeleke’s appointees as the OSSIEC chairman, there is nothing that will be independent in the activities of the commission except its nomenclature.
To him, Abioye’s appointment as the OSSIEC chairman stresses the fact that those who advise Adeleke have many questions to answer on political propriety, morality and fairplay.
He added that the appointment of Adeleke’s SA as the chairman of the OSSIEC has bastardized the statutory purpose of the commission.
In the APC chairman’s words: “As usual, the Adeleke administration has not disappointed the right-thinking members of the society with the weird and crude appointment of his SA as the custodian of the OSSIEC as it would have made news if the apparently confused governor had acted otherwise.
“The stakeholders in the Osun project should remind Governor Adeleke, who has been administering the state by proxy for lack of requisite exposure, knowledge and capacity, that the OSSIEC is neither an extension of the state PDP nor an appendage of the state government.
“It is necessary for Adeleke to allow the OSSIEC to act its name as what is now transpiring in the commission is an aberration which is visibly antithetical to genuine constitutional government.
“The sensitivity of the expected functions of the OSSIEC demands that it is headed by a non-partisan entity whose activities would not be subjected to controversial political caprices and undertones.
“With the appointment of one of the Adeleke’s lap dogs as the chairman of the OSSIEC, it’s bye-bye to democracy at the local government level in the state.
“The most honourable thing for Adeleke to do with the controversial appointment of Barr Hashim Abioye, as the OSSIEC chairman, is to rescind the mindless decision without further delay and allow good judgement to prevail”.
