A civil society in Osun State, Center for Sustained Dialogue has described the last Saturday primaries of the All Progressives Congress in the State as peaceful, credible and free.
The Center which partnered with Insight Multi-Links Media to observe the process and streamed it live said its 22 observers were present in 14 local government areas across eight federal constituencies across the State.
The CSO said this in a statement signed by Comrade Waheed Saka on Monday, a copy of which was obtained by InsightMedia in Osogbo.
Saka identified the local government covered as Atakumosa West, Ila, Iwo, Ife East, Ife Central, Ife South, Boripe, Osogbo, Olorunda, Irepodun, Ejigbo, Ede North, Oriade, Ilesa West and Egbedore.
“These observers conducted interviews, recorded videos and gave on the ground information on the process and it is with this information obtained from our observers that we are presenting this release to the public as our observation of the primaries.”
According to Saka, the observation of the team include free and fair process, violence free, lateness of officials in some wards and unregistered voters present at voting centers.
“Our observers in these 14 local governments noted the process was largely free and fair in all the wards visited. They observed that party members trooped out en-mass as early as possible to take part in the process. Accreditation started at the appropriate time and so was voting.
“It is worthy to note that the primaries was violent free in all the areas where our observers visited. There was a presence of security operatives stationed at strategic points and also some other patrol vehicles deployed across the local government.
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“The only report of violence recorded is from Ede and we confirmed from the Osun Police Command PRO, SP Yemisi Opalola that the issue in Ede has nothing to do with the primaries. She also added that the Commissioner of Police, Wale Olokede led a team to Ede to restore peace in the town.
‘There is no record of violence anywhere in Osun during the primaries.
“It was observed in Ila ward 3 that the election officials did not arrive the venue of the election early enough which led to agitation from the party members even though the officials later arrived and the election was conducted as planned.
“We observed that some people were mobilized to some wards who are not party members, they failed to do accreditation and was denied of voting. They tried to disrupt the process but they were resisted by security operatives present at the wards.
“Based on our observation, The Centre for Sustained Dialogue maintains that the Osun APC Primaries of Saturday 19th February, 2022 was credible, free and fair under a tight security.”
The organization, among its recommendations called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to improve its monitoring of the political, while also advising the APC to deploy more man-power for similar exercise.
