Ogun State’s LG Election Was The Worst Democratic Experiment PDP Has Ever Seen – Sunday Solarin

Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Sunday Solarin has come out to air the grievances of his party after the last Saturday local government election in the state.

He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, the People Democratic Party in Ogun State actually witnessed the worst of any democratic experiment that can be imagined in the history of the state, and perhaps in the history of Nigeria as a whole.

Sunday added that the party already knew the government lacked the capacity to conduct an election because it was a product of an illegitimate electioneering process.

His words, “We are all aware of the rush by the governors to have local government elections because of the directive of the Supreme Court to ensure that LG allocation goes directly to them without undue interference from the governors and that any local government without a democratically elected leader should not be given allocation. If not, maybe the election would not have taken place, and the governors will continue to have their cronies as caretaker committees. Notwithstanding, the People Democratic Party in Ogun State witnessed the worst of any democratic experiment that can be imagined in the history of the state and perhaps in the history of Nigeria.

When the process started, we knew that this government lacked the capacity to conduct an election because it was a product of an illegitimate electioneering process. Governor Dapo Abiodun rigged himself into office and there was no way he would give what he didn’t have. However, once a democratic contest is called, a political party must participate irrespective of the confidence of the party in the process. we decided to have our machinery activated for the election, but one of the first things we noticed was that even during the process of nominating party candidates, Governor Dapo Abiodun infiltrated PDP, trying to lure some of our members to submit a parallel list to the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission. Of the 236 councilors who were supposed to be fielded, the faction led by our former Chairman, Sikirullaih Ogundele, could not produce up to 50 councillorship candidates. So, they saw the ploy as being impossible and they disembarked from the plan because the person who was merchandising with them to produce a parallel list of candidates could not supply that as they could not get the support of party members.

Immediately after that, they instituted a case against the party at the state High Court, asking the court to order OGSIEC to delete the list of candidates of PDP from the list of candidates to contest the election. What they were praying for was that the PDP should not have candidates in that local government election. But the court dismissed the case. That left them with no option but to cause crisis and violence on the day of the election. People were beaten, and macheted on the day of the election, and three of my aides were seriously wounded by thugs. One of our principal’s (Ladi Adebutu) policemen was shot by these hoodlums as well. All these are currently being investigated by the police. The same governor who was using the police to harass the opposition in the state said the opposition caused violence during the election.

As of 9 am on the election day, the printing of election materials had not been concluded by OGSIEC. Out of 5,042 polling units in Ogun State, about 4,000 of the polling units did not even have materials for the election. OGSIEC officials were just there looking as if they came to watch a cinema. In some polling units, they did not have voter registers present, while there were no sufficient ballot papers in some others. As of 1 pm, some polling units did not have result sheets. It was a case of somebody who was trying to dress his wound by himself and you know such a person will not shed tears. That was the situation we found ourselves.

There was no election, so I’m not sure how we want to even start mentioning our complaints because if there had been an election, we would be talking about malpractice and rigging. But there was violence and intimidation of the electorate. They were doing this to send a signal that in future elections, the electorate should develop apathy because of the insecurity they were trying to stimulate in our electioneering process. Some people told me that they would not come out to vote again if the atmosphere was that chaotic. I think that was what APC was trying to do, to discourage people from voting, because they are unpopular. They sent signals of insecurity and lack of safety for people who wanted to exercise their franchise. PDP will not complain because the election did not even take place.

We won’t go to court because, the law that establishes OGSIEC, says once you are uncomfortable with the outcome of the election, you can only approach a state High Court which is also being controlled by the state governor. What are we going to get out of the court? Even if we want to go to court, we would go with facts and figures, but these are not available. They did not give any of our agents any result sheets, and they did not even follow the guidelines. If we want to go to court, which result sheets are we going to present? It will be a fruitless voyage for us to challenge the results of an election that did not even take place.”