Involvement of military in LG election, threat to democracy", Ogun lawmaker

....says APC lost its own election, resorts to violence, intimidation 

By Peter Adedoyin 

The Minority Leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Lukman Adeleye has condemned the use of force, violence, intimidation and the involvement of military personnel by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), during Saturday's local government election in the State. 

Adeleye who was speaking after his release by men of the Nigerian Army at Ilese Barracks who arrested him at gunpoint and detained him said, "such military involvement is a threat to democracy and the whole election was a charade".

Hon Adeleye said, the local government election has further exposed the ruling party as not only unpopular with the people, but have revealed that operators of the APC are capable of acts that can undermine democracy and disrupt the system.

"You can imagine the level of violence, rigging and intimidation and despite all that they still lost woefully in the election conducted by them. That shows the people have rejected them ", he said. 

In his explanation, Hon Adeleye said, "Odogbolu is one of the strongest hold of PDP in the state, coupled with the fact that I am their representative, it is not unexpected that our support base is intact and a majority especially when we have been so accountable and responsible to our people, doing projects and a whole lot. Our candidates were also top notch".

"Maybe the government should have simply written names and announce instead of wasting taxpayers money on the charade called election".

The minority leader, who berated the military for being use as a tool of suppression in a democracy, assured that the matter would be looked into, saying "the military officers were brought in allegedly by 'one SSG' as revealed by one of the officers on camera after many failed attempts to disrupt the election which the PDP was already leading". 

He decried, the manner in which he was whisked away in a commando like manner by officers of the military whom he alleged already used their vehicle to move over the leg of an electorate. 

Adeleye alleged that he was tortured and humiliated as they dragged him to the barracks where they tried to implicate him unsuccessfully. 

"I was later handed over to the police area command, before being brought to Abeokuta".

In summary, "it was a calculated attempt to take me away from the system and I later learnt that the officers were from Ibadan, even as they came without proper clearance".

Adeleye said "we are happy that we have been able to prove to the entire people of Ogun State that these people are fraudulent and not popular as the people have showed them, while it is clear cut that the APC is anti-people".