September 13, (THEWILL) – The Ogun State chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has elected chairmanship and councilorship candidates for the November 16 local government elections in the state.
Chairman of the SDP in the state, Dr. Yinka Ola-Williams, on Friday, said the party conducted credible and transparent primaries to elect reliable candidates for chairmanship and councillorship seats in the forthcoming elections.
Ola-Williams, who spoke while addressing party members in Abeokuta, the state capital, noted that the party was fully ready to take over leadership from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the councils and state level come 2027.
He lauded OGSIEC officials for being sincere and credible in the conduct of the primaries, stating that the party’s delegates conducted themselves in a violent-free manner to vote for candidates that would contest the LG elections in the state.
Ola-Williams, who prayed to God to assist the commission in conducting transparent and credible council elections, said he was convinced that the OGSIEC wouldn’t be biased or rig the election with the way it conducted peaceful primaries for the party.
He said, “We are here for our state primaries; the primaries for the local government chairmen and the councillors. We are happy that it went all well and it is a wonderful one and we are looking forward to the elections. It was free, fair and credible primaries, OGSIEC did very well, at least what we have seen so far is sincerity and we pray that sincerity continues even after the elections.
“It was a credible and fair one, and that should be. We will ensure that in our polling booths, we try as much as possible to get credible agents who are loyal to the party to be able to monitor our votes successfully to ensure there is no voting buying or rigging during the elections.
“We have done several meetings with the OGSIEC and the matter has been brought to them challenging that they would not play to the dictate of the paymaster and OGSIEC told us consistently that they are neutral, unbiased and would not be partial. We are only praying for them that the devil will not use them and God will help them to do the right thing.”
The Chairman, therefore, charged the people not to engage in vote buying, saying: “If somebody wants to involve themselves in voting buying with the state of the economy and what is happening in this country, you can only say congratulations to them.”
At the venue of the primaries, officers of the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC), including the Commissioner in charge of operations, OGSIEC, Mr, Tunji Akogun; Commissioner in charge of Security and Protocol, OGSIEC, Mrs Gbemisola Onasanya, and Special Adviser to Chairman, Mr. Ahmed Awoyade, were on ground to monitor the process.
