Politics
Osun PDP Alleges Plot To Arrest Govt, Party Officials
Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that 25 state officials have been listed for arrest and abduction by special security teams from Abuja.
A statement signed by the Osun PDP Chairman, Sunday Bisi, obtained by The Tide’s source in Osogbo on Saturday, stated that the security team that would carry out the arrest planned to commence in the new week, without a warrant of arrest.
The party also said those to be arrested include four special advisers, five party leaders and 15 other state officials, who upon their arrest would be moved to Abuja.
Bisi further said the plan to arrest PDP and Osun government officials was exposed last Thursday night by some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State, who bragged that they were going to use federal might to victimise Osun government officials and some leaders of the ruling PDP.
The PDP chairman, however, called on the police and the Department of State Services (DSS) to avoid political partisanship.
He said, “I want to call on President Bola Tinubu to caution members of his party in Osun because we will not allow our members to be harassed or victimised in the state. We seek Mr President’s immediate intervention.
“We are making this appeal on the premise that any hooded security operation against Osun State and party officials will amount to a direct violation of the constitution and the fundamental human rights of those officials. We will not succumb to such threats and intimidation.
“Our members and government will deploy all legal and constitutional measures to stop the planned violation of their rights. We will legally resist any plot to destabilise Osun state now under the well-loved and performing Governor Ademola Adeleke.”
But responding in another statement, Osun APC chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, described the PDP’s allegations as baseless and a mere fabrication to avoid answering pertinent questions regarding the contract procurement process supervised by the Adeleke government.
Lawal stated that apprehension being exercised by the Osun PDP was part of the ploy to mystify the issue surrounding how the state government recently awarded over N50bn road contracts to unqualified companies and cronies of the party with no technical and professional competence to execute road projects.
The APC chairman further said, “The handlers of Senator Ademola Adeleke are just being clever by half. They are perplexed and afraid to intelligently respond to our party’s revelation on how friends, family members and cronies, of the governor, with no experience in road construction, were gifted multi-billion road contracts.
“Was it the state APC that directed Governor Adeleke who doubles as the state Commissioner for Works, to award a kilometre of road for a whooping cost of N2.5 billion which is even higher than what is obtainable even in the riverine areas?
“The state leadership of the PDP should leave the APC out of the problems it might have created for itself because of political desperation. If some criminals among them, those who were involved in the maiming, killing and kidnapping of innocent members of our party, are being wanted by law enforcement agencies, the right thing for a law-abiding chairman to do is to direct the indicted members to answer the lawful summons of the security agencies, not teaching them to act fugitives as the chairman of the PDP is currently doing.
“Osun PDP and its co-travellers are groping in the daylight because of the confusion their greed has imposed on the people of Osun.”
The hostilities involving Osun PDP and APC became stronger earlier last week when the opposition party came up with allegations that Adeleke had been awarding contracts to unqualified companies of his cronies and family members.
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
-
Opinion3 days ago
Ancestorial Worship: My Take (1)
-
News7 hours ago
Customs Partners EFCC, NDLEA, Others To Tackle Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing
-
News7 hours agoFresh Ebola Scare As NCDC Records Two Cases
-
News3 days agoFG Must Address Nigerians’ Concerns On Reforms -Shettima …Warns Against Misuse of AI, Social Media
-
Niger Delta7 hours ago
PANDEF Seeks 50% Oil Derivation Allocation Increase
-
Rivers5 hours ago
Don Seeks Repositioning Of Tech Education For Dev
-
Education6 hours agoPAMO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY -Nullifies Arrest warrant on VC
-
Education6 hours agoIAUE MOVES TO END GHOST WORKERS SYNDROME AS 400 NEW NON-TEACHING STAFF UNDERGO MANDATORY ETHICS TRAINING