Group Commends Security Personnel For Peaceful Osun Governorship and Supplementary Election

• Berate Foreign and Local Election Observers for paid press releases to discredit security arrangment for the election

The United Young Professionals has commended the Nigeria Police and all the security personnel that coordinated the just concluded Osun State Governorship Election and Supplementary election.

Reacting to various press release by some Foreign and Local Election Observers, the National Coordinator of the United Young Professionals , Adewole Kehinde said the press releases were sponsored by a particular party to discredit the Security personnel under the amiable DIG Operations, DIG Habila Josak and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

"It was widely reported by all the media how observers under the aegis of Coalition of Election Observer Groups exchanged punches and assaulted themselves severely over the sharing formula of the money they allegedly got from the governorship contender.

"According to police source, trouble started around 7:45pm on Wednesday after the observers invited journalists for a press conference ahead of the governorship rerun.

"At the hall of the Nigeria Union of Journalists secretariat in Osogbo, venue of the planned press conference, the observers were said to have started hauling insults on themselves as they exchanged hot altercations on whom should address the media"

While the imbroglio ensued, some observers alleged that one of their leaders shortchanged them.

One of the observers simply identified as Michael, was alleged to have collected the sum of one million naira from a candidate of one of the leading political parties for the rerun.

They claimed that Michael declared the sum of N500,000 instead of the N1,000000 he allegedly received from the candidate.

To this end, the observers started throwing punches on their leader and others who they perceived hoarded their money.

It took the efforts of the police before normalcy was restored to the venue as the victim was taken to the Police clinic for medical treatment.

"We wondered how Election Observers who have been compromised with money from governorship aspirant will have the audacity send out press releases to condemn the peaceful supplementary election that conducted today in Osun State, Adewole reiterated.

"We called on Nigerians especially Osun State indigenes and residents to ignore such paid press releases coming from the so called Election Observers either Local or International, the statement ended.