NOTICE OF DISENGAGEMENT FROM OBSERVATION OF THE FEBRUARY 22, 2025,
OSUN 2025 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION

CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF OSOGBO
JUSTICE DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE MAKERS CENTRE (JDPMC) OSOGBO
February 22, 2025

JDPMC as an organization that advances the social doctrines of the Catholic Church and is thus
committed to advocating for democracy and electoral integrity, has since the announcement of the
Notice of Election by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) in February 2024
working closely with all election stakeholders including OSSIEC, INEC Osun State, Inter Party
Advisory Council (IPAC), the Law Enforcement Agencies especially the Nigerian Police Force, Civil
Society organizations, faith-based organizations and the entire citizenry to ensure a free, fair,
transparent and credible Local Government election on February 22, 2025.

The organization has since provided avenue of dialogue for stakeholders through stakeholders
dialogue forums involving INEC, OSSIEC, the law enforcement agencies, the media, PWDs and
CSOs, conducted series of advocacy to OSSIEC, Nigerian Police Force and IPAC, supported the
training of OSSIEC, carried out series of voter education through the media and provided radio airtime
for youths and women contestants across all political parties, and organized avenues for OSSIEC to
enlighten the public to ensure a peaceful and participatory election. JDPMC hereby commends all the
above-mentioned stakeholders for the active collaboration and participation of these stakeholders in all
the remote pre-election activities it organized for a free, fair, transparent and credible election in all the
activities between February 2024 up till February 8, 2025, when JDPMC met with the executive of
IPAC. Since the ruling of the Court of Appeal sitting that sat in Akure on February 10, 2025, JDPMC faced
extreme difficulties in furtherance of its pre-election activities as OSSIEC had become less engaging
and accessible ever since. This frustrated efforts to get very useful information about the election for
further engagement with stakeholders and the citizenry ahead of the election. With other consequent
developments from the court’s ruling such as incidents of violent bloodshed, lawlessness,
politicization of court ruling among others since February 17, 2025, JDPMC began to observe fast
degeneration of confidence in the entire process in many stakeholders. While the organization
continued to mobilize for the restoration of peace, order and cooperation among stakeholders, it
proceeded with all preparatory activities including deployment of observers to various polling units on
February 21, 2025.

However, JDPMC observed that since the “legal lock jam” resulting from the directives of the
Attorney General of the federation and order of the High Court that sat in Ilesa on February 21, 2025,
the Nigerian Police Force and OSSIEC openly disagree on the conduct of the Osun Local Government
election on this 22nd day of February 2025. While the Osun State government and OSSIEC have
decided that the election holds, the Nigerian Police Force through the Force Public relation Officer
ACP Muyiwa Adejobi in a statement issued on February 21, 2025 “strongly advised” the Osun state
government to suspend the election.

For JDPMC, this disagreement between the two major pillars of a peaceful, transparent and credible
election, namely the Election Management Body and the Law Enforcement Agency, makes it
impossible for the organization to undertake a credible election observation exercise in strict
adherence to its principles based on best practice. JDPMC hereby withdraws all its observers from the
various polling units with immediate effects and so announces its discontinuation of observing the
February 22, 2025, Osun Local Government election. The organization regrets this unfortunate but
inevitable development.

It must be emphasized that this does not in any way have the implication that the organization agrees
with any of the interpretation of the contested judgement of the appellate court. The decision is strictly
based on the disagreement between the police and OSSIEC on the conduct of the election which for us
cannot guarantee the atmosphere required for the conduct and observation of a credible election. The
evident absence of the security agents IN the polling units and the non-enforcement of curfew directed
by the state government for the conduct of the election strongly reinforced our understanding of the
statement of the Nigerian Police PRO given that we sought without success for the interpretation of
the statement without success from the authorities of the Nigerian Police Force Osun State Command.

The organization thanks all partners who offered funding and technical support, and enriched its
strategy through knowledge sharing namely, Misereor Germany, EU-SDGN Phase II project, YIAGA
Africa and Kimpact Development Initiative. Appreciations also to all the major stakeholders: INEC,
OSSIEC, IPAC and the security agencies in Osun state for the outstanding cooperation that
characterized the fruitful remote pre-election activities. Above all, the organization wishes to
appreciate the bishop, the priests and religious and the lay faithful of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo
for the inevitable support given to the organization. Special thanks also to the Bishops of the Mainline
churches in Osogbo. Finally, the management of the organization expresses special thanks to the team
of courageous and resilient staff of the organization and the team of field observers earlier trained and
deployed for the observation of the election despite the threats of violence. We look forward to the
stabilization of democracy and electoral integrity in Osun state and in Nigeria.

We are urging all stakeholders, particularly the Federal and State governments, OSSIEC, security
agencies, political parties, and civil society organizations, to take immediate steps to safeguard the
electoral process and ensure that citizens can exercise their civic rights without any fear.
JDPMC remains committed to promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance. We stand
in solidarity with all stakeholders working towards peaceful and transparent elections and hope for
conditions that will enable meaningful observation in the future.

Rev Fr Peter Akinkunmi
General Coordinator