The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM) have criticised the chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), Hashim Abioye, for allegedly relocating voting materials for the Local Government poll to Government House, Oke-Fia, Osogbo, on Wednesday.

Jamiu Olawumi, an ex-aide to Adegboyega Oyetola, representing the APC, stated, “We have it on good authority that all the voting materials for the illegal council election fixed for February 22, 2025, have been moved to Government House.”

“The action of the OSIEC chairman confirmed that Osun State has shifted from democracy to dictatorship governance. The popular practice is to move the sensitive materials to either the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the Police Station.”

“This also confirmed that Abioye who was former Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Special Adviser to Governor Adeleke on legal matters was sent to ruin democracy at our councils.”

He held that taking the material to government houses confirmed that the election would be rigged on Saturday, “the material will be thumbprint before Saturday, the election is illegal, we have taken over all the councils.”

Also, APM through its state chairman, Hon Adewale Adebayo said, “Moving sensitive materials to the government house this afternoon has justified our earlier claims that Abioye cannot conduct a free and fair elections.

“This action is an insult to all the residents of Osun State. I want to urge the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) to boycott this illegal election, hence they are culpable.”

However, the OSIEC chairman, Abioye denied all the allegations, noting that they only deployed non-sensitive materials to where they were needed before Saturday’s election.

He said: “We did not move any material to Government House. Nothing of such, we only deployed non-sensitive materials to where they are needed.”