By EMMANUEL OLONIRUHA

The national leadership of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday told the sacked local government chairmen and councilors in Osun to perish the thought of coming back to office.

The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in Abuja, described the attempt by the council chairmen and councilors to return to office as a futile venture, warning that it would have dire consequences.

Ologunagba advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) to accept the reality rather than resorting to self-help and misrepresentations that might trigger crisis and destabilise the state.

?PDP asserts that the fate of the ousted local government chairmen and councilors was sealed by the judgment of the Court to Appeal which nullified the unconstitutional attempt by the then Gov. Gboyega Oyetola to illegally plant them as LG officers in the guise of an election,? he said.

Ologunagba said that from the July 16, 2022 governorship election, APC ought to have known that attempting to side-step the laws and manipulate the process to illegally install local government executives was an exercise in futility, which was bound to fail.

According to him, APC is the architect of its own misfortune.

He said that the party should have known that refusing to comply with the provisions of the constitution and the state local government election laws with respect to the notices, processes and procedures of conducting the election was destined to fail.

Ologunagba advised APC in the state not to drag the office of President Bola Tinubu into the matter.

?APC should note that our nation operates a federal system of government, with clearly entrenched devolution of powers among the federating units as well as the various sub-national tiers of government.

?It should, therefore, desist from the fruitless attempt to drag Tinubu and the Federal Government into the issue of local government election.

?Local government election, under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), is within the purview of the state and has no connection whatsoever with the federal government,? he said.

Ologunagba said that if APC truly believed in its purported popularity in Osun, it should get ready for local government election, as already scheduled by the State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC).

He condemned the violence and killing of some youths by political thugs on Monday.

He called on the Inspector-General of Police to bring the perpetrators of what he called the heinous crime to book.

The national publicity secretary called on the people of the state to remain calm, law-abiding and get ready for the council elections.

He also commended them for their continued support to Gov. Ademola Adeleke in his delivery of ?monumental and life-enhancing? projects and programmes in the state. (NAN)

Update news