Sixteen opposition political parties in Osun have withdrawn from the local government elections scheduled for February 22, 2025.

The chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council in Osun, Victor Akande, announced the opposition parties’ decision to boycott the election while briefing journalists in Osogbo on Monday.

According to Mr Akande, the association made the decision because it has lost confidence in the State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) chairman, Ashim Abioye.

Mr Akande alleged that the OSSIEC chair “has perfected plans to use PDP members as electoral officers during the election, which we all know what it means.”

He said the alleged move by Mr Abioye was to “trap us into conducting our parties’ primary elections without disclosing the amount each party will pay, which will, of course, lead to efforts in futility after announcing an exorbitant fee.”

The IPAC chair said, “We expected up-to-date information from Abioye has been done by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but the reverse is the case as we always have information about Osun local government election from PDP e-rats.”

The opposition parties further accused the ruling PDP-led administration in the state of “intentionally creating avenues for crisis all over, so as to scare our people away from the forthcoming council election, as only a secure mind will have the courage to go out to vote for his/her choice.”

“It is on these notes that we resolved, after deliberations with our parties’ members, to back out of the forthcoming local government election in Osun state,” Mr Abioye said.

He listed the 16 parties withdrawing from the LG polls to include Action Alliance, African Democratic Congress, Accord Party, Social Democratic Party, African Action Congress, New Nigeria People’s Party, Allied Peoples Party, People’s Redemption Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Zenith Labour Party, Action Democratic Party, Action Peoples Party, Labour Party, Boot Party, National Rescue Movement and Young Peoples Party.