Osun Decides: NLC warns against militarization of state

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said it is worried by the heavy deployment of armed security operatives to Osun State as part of preparations ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.

The union, in a terse statement by its president, Comrade Abduwahed Omar, said it believes this cannot be helpful to the growth of any democratic culture as it portends an infringement on the rights of the electorate who may refuse to participate in the election as a result of the intimidating presence of armed security agents.

“More worrisome is the reported shootings across the state capital by officers of the State Security Service (SSS) shortly after arriving the state for election-related duties. We wonder why the SSS had to waste bullets shooting sporadically to scare residents who were not engaged in any form of violence at the time of the shootings,” the union stated.

Omar stressed that in as much as elections were very important to any democracy, “we caution that the state should not be turned into a war zone”.

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