Charly Boy joins activists to demand probe of Osun Governorship Election

Charles Oputa

Controversial entertainer, Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy, Monday joined other activists calling for a probe of the last governorship election in Osun state.

The activists said their intention is to forestall incidents of inducements,  voters harassment and manipulation of figures which were recorded during the supplementary election held on the 27th of September. 

They spoke in Osogbo at a Colloquium organised by the Oodua Youth Development Initiative and the Virtues Unlimited Restorative Justice Initiative .

The activists identified lack of transparency, harassment of observers and media men, failure of card readers as some of the incidents which marred the exercise declared to have been won by the All Progressives Congress candidate, Gboyega Oyetola.

Chales Oputa in his speech said Nigerians owe it a duty to the next generation to make sure that elections reflect the true wishes of the people and that citizens rise up to resist manipulations by electoral umpire.

He charged youths in Nigeria to rise up in Defence of true democracy, selfless leadership  and natural  justice without which no country can truly progress.

At the event were also representatives of the Coalition in Defence of Nigeria's Democracy and Constitution, Dare Ariyo; Democracy and Good governance Department of the Justice and Peace Makers Centre, Festus Ojewunmi and Wole Oladapo of the Virtues Restorative Justice Initiative.

The activists cited various reports of observer groups including the Nigeria Bar Association, Centre for Democracy and Development, UK, US and EU missions,speakers at the colloquium described  the Osun governorship election as falling short of standards  of credibility and neutrality in an electoral contest.

They called on the judiciary to be above board in handling the various petitions arising from the governorship election in order to retain public confidence in the judicial system as the last hope of the common man.

Leaders  of 9 political parties who attended the colloguium spoke on the need for the International community to pay closer attention to the 2019 general elections in view of the experiences of the Osun poll.

The People's Democratic Party, PDP, represented by Dr Lere Oyewunmi accused the Independent National  Electoral Commission of conniving with the APC to tamper with card readers deployed to many local governments during the election, adding that card readers were preloaded with accreditation while features to identify the genuineness of voters cards were disabled ahead of the election.