PRESS STATEMENT
OSUN ELECTIONS: A FORESHADOW OF 2027 ELECTIONS
The result of the Osun Governorship elections, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), showing a convincing win by Governor Ademola Adeleke, is a clear message from Nigerians in Osun State about what the 2027 elections will be. The victory, which came at a high cost of strong will, vigilance and resistance by the people of Osun State against the entire rigging machinery of the ruling All Progressives Congress, who were desirous of winning the state at all costs.
That the APC wanted Osun, by fair or foul means, was not in doubt to anyone, which accounts for the unceasing intimidation, assault and arrests of opposition politicians, the “kill them” directive by Senator Francis Fadahunsi and the performative invitation by the police, and his subsequent release to participate in the elections. The ruling party that is ruining the country mobilized their entire rigging machinery to Osun, with nothing left to chance, boasting that they will repeat the Edo experience, but the people of Osun State resisted their machinations and ensured the sanctity of the ballot.
We must warn that the failure of national institutions to maintain unambiguous neutrality is dangerous and anti-democratic. The manifest partiality of security agencies, especially the police, and even the shameful intervention by the EFCC freezing the accounts of the state; and the intentional delay (more than two hours) in uploading the results of the 470 polling units by INEC, are acts that are not just condemnable but are actions capable of derailing democracy.
While we commend the resilience of the electorate in Osun, we urge Nigerians not to rest on their oars as the 2027 elections approach. Nigerians must vote, protect and defend their votes. They must not think that having failed in Osun, the APC and its accomplices in the critical national institutions will repent of their ill deeds; they will rather seek to learn from the failings in Osun, to perfect their dark art of subverting the wishes of the people.
Overall, the result from Osun is an advance payment by Nigerians against the APC, the balance will come in 2027, when Nigerians will send packing the most ineffective and destructive political class in the history of Nigeria, post-independence.
Election results must be reflective of the wishes of the people freely expressed through the ballot and not the enforcement of the whims and caprices of a privileged minority of oppressors. And to achieve this, Nigerians must never forget that the price for eternal freedom is vigilance.
Signed:
Comrade Ini Ememobong, MNIPR
National Publicity Secretary
Interim National Working Committee
Peoples Democratic Party
16082026