Aregbesola blasts PDP as House confirms OSSIEC members

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola

Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has described the criticism of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state against his nominees for the membership of the State Independent Electoral Commission as hypocritical.

This came on the  day the House of Assembly ratified the names the governor nominated to serve in the commission. The ratification of the seven-man panel was contained in a statement made available to our correspondent on Monday.

Also, members of the OSSIEC dissolved by the governor had also written to the Speaker of the House of Assembly urging  the lawmakers to follow the rule of law by desisting from the confirmation of the list of nominees sent to the House.

The old OSSIEC, who were represented by their counsel, Mr. Maurice Okediya, urged the lawmakers to refrain from screening the nominees saying that they had a case before the Supreme Court on the matter.

The governor, who spoke through the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Sunday Akere, in an interview with our correspondent in Osogbo on Monday, however, said that he had not committed any illegality by constituting the electoral body.

The commissioner said that the PDP that had been accused of using caretaker committees to run the affairs    local government councils could now turn around to attack Aregbesola for making efforts to conduct elections into the councils.

The Chairman of the PDP in the state, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa, had accused Aregbesola of undermining the judiciary by seeking to constitute a new electoral body while a case against it was still pending before the Supreme Court.