NIGERIA: My Win Strong Signal To President Jonathan, PDP —Osun State Governor
Osun State governor elect, Rauf Aregbesola, has described his victory in Saturday’s election as a “strong message” to President Goodluck Jo...
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Osun State governor elect, Rauf Aregbesola, has described his victory in Saturday’s election as a “strong message” to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Aregbesola who was quoted by the reporters in a speech after being declared winner early Sunday said being voted for a second term affirmed that “no might is powerful enough to thwart the will of the people”.
“Our victory is due to the steadfastness and resolute determination of our people to assert and defend their rights. The PDP obviously did all it could in a most desperate manner to steal the people’s mandate,” the governor said, and warned that nobody or party must exercise power unreasonably at any level except in accordance with the will of the people.
In his speech, Aregbesola who expressed reservations on the massive security deploy-ment for the poll, described it as unnecessarily tense, tortuous and traumatic and lamented that Nigeria remains in political bondage and expressed the urgent need to “set the country free.
“Ordinarily, this should be a moment of joy and celebration consequent upon the hard earned triumph of the people’s will.
However, this election shows that democracy is still gravely endangered in Nigeria. We witnessed gross abuse of power and of due process before, during, and even after the actual voting process”, he said.
He noted that Osun State was unduly mili-tarized in an unprecedented manner through criminal intimidation and psychological assault on the people, just as it was characterised by an abuse of security agencies which amounted to corruption of their professional ethics and integrity.
He added that the security agencies were unprofessionally mobilized to harass, intimidate and oppress the people whose taxes are used to pay their salaries.
“Hundreds of leaders, supporters, sympa-thizers and agents of our party were arrested and detained. Also, hundreds of other innocent citizens including women and the aged were harassed, brutalized and traumatized. In spite of this condemnable repression and abuse of human rights, the unflagging spirit of our people triumphed”, he said.
He said despite the victory, it was pertinent to condemn and also point out the fact that the number of accredited voters in most local governments was less than half of the registered voters.
“It is curious that the bulk of the PDP candidate’s votes came from only four local governments-namely Ife Central, Ife East, Ife North and Ife South”.
Source: Daily Trust
Aregbesola who was quoted by the reporters in a speech after being declared winner early Sunday said being voted for a second term affirmed that “no might is powerful enough to thwart the will of the people”.
“Our victory is due to the steadfastness and resolute determination of our people to assert and defend their rights. The PDP obviously did all it could in a most desperate manner to steal the people’s mandate,” the governor said, and warned that nobody or party must exercise power unreasonably at any level except in accordance with the will of the people.
In his speech, Aregbesola who expressed reservations on the massive security deploy-ment for the poll, described it as unnecessarily tense, tortuous and traumatic and lamented that Nigeria remains in political bondage and expressed the urgent need to “set the country free.
“Ordinarily, this should be a moment of joy and celebration consequent upon the hard earned triumph of the people’s will.
However, this election shows that democracy is still gravely endangered in Nigeria. We witnessed gross abuse of power and of due process before, during, and even after the actual voting process”, he said.
He noted that Osun State was unduly mili-tarized in an unprecedented manner through criminal intimidation and psychological assault on the people, just as it was characterised by an abuse of security agencies which amounted to corruption of their professional ethics and integrity.
He added that the security agencies were unprofessionally mobilized to harass, intimidate and oppress the people whose taxes are used to pay their salaries.
“Hundreds of leaders, supporters, sympa-thizers and agents of our party were arrested and detained. Also, hundreds of other innocent citizens including women and the aged were harassed, brutalized and traumatized. In spite of this condemnable repression and abuse of human rights, the unflagging spirit of our people triumphed”, he said.
He said despite the victory, it was pertinent to condemn and also point out the fact that the number of accredited voters in most local governments was less than half of the registered voters.
“It is curious that the bulk of the PDP candidate’s votes came from only four local governments-namely Ife Central, Ife East, Ife North and Ife South”.
Source: Daily Trust
