The Chairman of National Union of Road Transaport Workers (NURTW) otherwise known as Park Manager System in Oyo state, Mukaila Lamidi, popularly called Auxiliary on Thursday morning allegedly led some thugs to stop members of All progressive Congress (APC) from obtaining a court injunction to stop the local govt election slated for Saturday in oyo state.
The governor of the state, Seyi Makinde had on May 29, 2019 after assuming office, sacked elected chairmen of the 33 local government areas and chairpersons of the 34 Local Council Development Areas elected during the time of the immediate former governor, Abiola Ajimobi.
Makinde subsequently appointed caretaker chairmen to the councils.
The APC challenged the sacking in court and the Supreme Court last week asked the state government to pay the affected council chairmen their outstanding salaries.
Following the judgement of the Supreme Court, members of the APC in the state asked Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) to postpone the local government election scheduled for this month for them to take part in the poll.
The OYSIEC however argued that it had approached the APC before the timetable was announced for them to take part in the election but they declined.
To this end, the APC approached the state High Court to get an injunction against the conduct of the election, but SaharaReporters learnt that Auxiliary, who is loyal to the Makinde government, deployed thugs to the court on Thursday morning to frustrate the process.
The spokesman for the APC in the state, Olawale Sadare said in a message to SaharaReporters, "LG Poll: OYSG, Oyo PDP deploy thugs in courts to stop litigants... APC lawyers, chieftains under attacks at Ring Road High Court."
It was also learnt that APC lawyers were prevented by the thugs from gaining access to the courts at Ring Road and Iyaganku.
For instance, a senior lawyer who spoke to OYOINSIGHT.COM on condition of anonymity, said thugs took over the surroundings of the courts as early as 7 am.
“Three lawyers and one administrative staff from the Chambers of Seun Abimbola (SAN) and Kunle Sobaloju were attacked on the way to the Office of the Chief Registrar by PDP thugs in their attempt to prevent them from filing necessary papers to stop the illegal LG poll slated for this Saturday…” one of the APC chieftains told OYOINSIGHT.COM.
