Students Dare Armed Security Agents And Hold Rally For Aregbesola
In spite of presence of stern looking security agents in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, multitude of students still came out on Wednesday, 6 August, 2014, to hold a rally in support of Governor Rauf Aregbesola ahead of the 9 August, 2014 governorship election in the state. The incumbent Governor Aregbesola, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is expected to face stiff opposition from Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the gubernatorial polls on Saturday. It was gathered that as early as 6am on Wednesday, security officials had laid siege to the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, proposed venue of the rally where the students had planned to adopt Aregbesola as their candidate in the election. Reports had it that some mobile police officers and soldiers turned back people who had gone to the Park. * A mega rally held in Osun in support of Gov. Aregbesola However, the students, under the aegis of Youth and Students Coalition for the re-election of Mr. Aregbesola, took to the Olaiya Junction in the heart of the state capital and marched to Ogo-Oluwa axis of Osogbo before they converged on Fakunle area to address their members. According to reports, the coalition comprised the National Association of Nigerian Students Joint Campus Committee, National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS) and some other students associations on campuses. * Senator Omisore, left, and Governor Aregbesola The convener of the group, Abiola Oludele, while speaking at the occasion, asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to be fair in its conduct of the Osun guber polls on Saturday. He said youth in the state would not accept any excuse for failure to organise a free and fair election. “We want to use this medium to charge INEC to conduct an election that will be seen by all as free and fair. Youth in Osun will take no excuse for their failure and any attempt to go against the popular wish of our people will be resisted,” Mr. Oludele said. “Youth and students coalition wish to inform INEC and security agents deployed to the state that we bargain for nothing other than free and fair governorship election come August 9. * Nigeria's Minister of State for Defence, Obanikoro “People as the owners of votes, we do not need any clearance to monitor, safeguard and protect our votes. “We wish to state it clearly that we are fully aware that various security agents and others (are) deployed for our protection and as such should not be turned to instrument of oppression and harassment before election. “It is important for INEC to note that the duties of its officers are not expected to be carried out by any of the security agents in any of the polling units across the state,” the group added in their statement. The Bureau of Communications and Strategy in the Office of the Osun Governor, while commenting on the development, said it was unthinkable that the PDP-led Federal Government could turn people back from the Nelson Mandela Park at this stage of Nigeria’s democratic journey. “One is miffed by the audacity of the security agents who dared to stop members of the workforce of Osun and students who wanted to adopt the Governor today and tell the whole world that they are behind Aregbesola,” Semiu Okanlawon, Director of the Bureau, said. “But we are consoled by the fact that the people have shown them their power. People have demonstrated that even in the face of intimidation, they are peaceful but resolute on the decision to vote for Rauf Aregbesola.” It would be recalled that prior to this latest development that the APC had accused the federal government of planning to intimidate the people of Osun in other to rig the Osun election via the deployment of armed security officials to the state. In his response, the Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, had stated that the presidency decided to deploy armed soldiers to Osun State to ensure that the governorship election is held in a peaceful environment.
Source: Legit.ng
