Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) yesterday declared all the 389 candidates of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as winners of the Local Government councillorship election held at the weekend.
The Chairman of the commission, Mr Segun Oladitan, who announced the result to the public said 318 out of the candidates were however returned unopposed.
Oladitan said 128 out of the unopposed candidates were from Osun Central Senatorial District, while117 were from Osun West and the remaining 73 from Osun East Senatorial District.
He said the remaining 71 other candidates that made up the total councillorship seat figure were the ones elected at the poll on Saturday.
He said 52 of the voted candidates came from Osun East,13 from the West, while the remaining six came from Osun Central Senatorial District.
“As earlier published in the newspapers and as announced by the commission during a press conference, all the APC candidates are hereby declared as winners and returned as councillors of the state,” he said.
Other parties such as Labour Party and Accord Party did not win any seat, while the main opposition party, the PDP, boycotted the election, following a litigation earlier filed to stop the exercise.
After announcing the result, Oladitan issued certificates of return to all the councillors, both elected and unopposed.
He also declared that the elected councillors would be running a parliamentary system of democracy at the local government level, where the councillors would elect a chairman from among them.
With the development, Osun State has reintroduced a parliamentary system of government at the council level which is unprecedented since the military regime put an end to it in 1966.
Meanwhile, the ruling party, APC, described the victory as a massive triumph for its members and the people of the state.
This was contained in a statement by the party’s Director of Publicity, Information and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, who congratulated the people of the state, saying: “The people know what they want and would not allow themselves to be deceived by the shenanigans of the opposition.”
“Beyond the electoral victory is the political step forward into the less expensive parliamentary democracy which will now start in Osun’s local government setting for the first time in 52 years since our parliamentary democracy was destroyed by the military in 1966,” the party said.
“When the import of this election will be addressed in the history books in the future, the state of Osun will be celebrated as a catalyst for the return of parliamentary democracy if not in Nigeria, certainly in Yoruba land,” it added.
