A few days ago, Remi Abbas, and 5 other people died in Osun state as a result of political brinkmanship of APC and PDP politicians on the issue of local government chairmanship. Remi Abbas was Chairman of Irewole Local Government under the APC.
What Really Happened
It started in October 2022 when outgoing governor; Gboyega Oyetola who had lost gubernatorial elections to PDP Governor Ademola Adeleke organized local government elections that installed erstwhile caretaker chairmen who are members APC.
The PDP considering the strategic nature of this move and future danger for governance and subsequent elections decided to go to court to challenge the elections, citing failure to comply with electoral processes stipulated for organizing local government elections. This case is legally cited as PDP vs OSSIEC and others. The OSSIEC is the electoral body of Osun State.
But this is where it gets tricky. Action People’s Party (APP) took the electoral commission (OSSIEC) to court around the same time that PDP did, in the case; APP vs OSSIEC and others. As a consequence, both PDP and APP obtained reliefs from the court where the elections organized by Oyetola were nullified on 25th of November and 30th of November of 2022, in the suits of PDP and APP, respectively.
Now, we have two unconsolidated decisions by Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel the Federal High Court in Osogbo.
Further Intrigues
The APC to file an appeal for both decisions, but they failed to prosecute the decision in favour of APP. They only pursued the judgement in favour of PDP.
In terms of their prayers on appeal, APC prayed amongst other things that the court should nullify the decision of the federal High Court, citing the issue of lack of jurisdiction and reinstatement of the elected chairmen in that election.
On 10th of February, 2025, the Appeal Court sitting in Akure granted the prayer that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction. By implication, this means the decision of the Federal High Court no longer holds. Inevitably, an intelligent guess by implication will translate the judgement to mean that the chairmen can return to their various local governments.
This called for celebration and optimism. Hence, APC leaders, and Oyetola who still eyes a second term allegedly encouraged the removed chairmen that they can resume office and that they have the backing of law enforcement, and the president, who is Oyetola’s uncle.
Emboldened by this charge, the date for anarchy was set. The state government set February 25th, 2022 for local government elections, but the PDP and APC hordes were ready for battle. And battle they did, with the state government announcing that people stay away from the local governments, and the Governors nephew- Davido, threatening fire and brimstone. The result? 6 dead.
But is the APC entirely justified in its quest to reclaim its local government mandate? Well, we have forgotten the case in favour of APP.
APC failed to prosecute the appeal case against APP at the Appeal Court, which was eventually dismissed. This only means that the judgement at the Federal High Court which was in favour of APP that the chairmanship election was nullified, is still in force.
The jury is out on how this issue will end. The next gubernatorial elections in Osun State will be in 2026, and this entire debacle is in preparation for that event.
The gongs of war that has been sounded will keep ringing in the ears of political thugs and politicians. Osun has now become a political colosseum, where the most murderous players will warm up and parade themselves to the electorate. They are developing their right to terror and not the right to vote.
Ultimately, the Osun State elections in 2026 will be based on who has the best capacity for terror, both physically and propaganda wise. What happened in the last few days was a social experiment to draw out passionate supporters, as well as to estimate the level of physical violence and propaganda that needs to be applied in 2026.
This time bomb needs to be defused in due time.
