The Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, Hashim Abioye, has said only the chairmen and councillors elected in the February 22, 2025 local government elections can validly exercise management functions over councils in the state.

Abioye, reacting to the ongoing dispute over the legitimacy of the 2025 local government elections, said the exercise was conducted in full compliance with legal and constitutional provisions, and that no valid court order prohibited the election.

Governance has been paralysed across the 31 local governments in the state, as workers withdrew their services amid the power tussle between the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress.

The two parties have been contesting control of the councils following a judgment by the Court of Appeal in Akure, which the APC claimed reinstated the sacked chairmen and councillors elected on October 15, 2022 under the administration of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

However, the state government and the PDP maintained that the appellate court did not grant such relief.

Amid the controversy, OSSIEC conducted fresh elections on February 22, 2025, producing a new set of local government officials.

On May 17, an attempt by the APC members, who claimed to have been reinstated by the court, to resume duties at their respective council offices was resisted by PDP members, leading to violence and fatalities.

Six people, including the reinstated Chairman of Irewole Local Government, Remi Abbas, were killed in the clash.

Despite the bloodshed, the APC members took over council offices across the state the following week.

However, civil servants have since refused to return to work.

Commenting on the situation, Abioye stated that the OSSIEC-conducted election was backed by due process and legality.

He insisted that only those elected in the February 2025 poll have constitutional and statutory rights to function as council officials.

“Our products of February 22, 2025, are legitimate. As of today, no other person or authority can validly exercise management functions over our local councils except the elected chairmen and councillors produced by OSSIEC,” he said.

He further stated that unlike the 2022 election, which was nullified by two separate judgments of the Federal High Court, the 2025 poll was held on solid legal ground.

“By virtue of a subsisting decision of the Federal High Court, the 2022 YES/NO election was invalidated, and the officials produced by it were sacked. Vacancies existed at the time we issued the notice of election. Duly elected officials emerged, were declared, returned, and sworn in. That remains the law,” he explained.

Abioye warned that any individual or institution engaging with persons other than those elected in 2025 would be doing so at their own peril