Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke says elements within the opposition are plotting to attack local government secretariats, leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and top government officials across the state ahead of the February 22 local government elections.

Adeleke, in a statement on Thursday by his spokesman, Olawale Rasheed, said “the evil agenda” was designed to disrupt the forthcoming local government elections and create an atmosphere of chaos to push for the declaration of a state of emergency.”

He described Osun as one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria, warning that anybody apprehended over the plot would face the full wrath of the law.

He said the “reprehensible desperation” by the opposition politicians was manifesting in their “concoction of fake court rulings, deliberate fabrication of fake news and condemnable building of false narratives instead of facing the electorate on February 22nd.

“There is a subsisting court judgement secured by the APP which nullified the kangaroo local government election held in 2022, declaring that the judgement remains valid in law and reality.”

He said the Tuesday’s judgement of a Court of Appeal in Akure was about the filing of court processes by the PDP “which has nothing to do with the subsisting judgement that sacked the illegally elected council chairmen and councilors of the APC.

Adeleke said: “I have issued stern directives to the security agencies to secure the state and apprehend any trouble maker. There is no legal basis for any plot to take over the local government system in Osun state. Elections to fill the offices of chairmen and councilors are scheduled for February 22nd.

“Anybody who tests our resolve to sustain law and order in Osun state will have himself to blame. As the Chief Security Officer for the state, I am determined to deploy all available machinery of the state to maintain peace and punish trouble makers.

“I also call on citizens and residents of the state to go about their normal activities without fear or intimidation. The government is on top of the situation. We are resolved to keep the state and the streets safe from anti-democratic elements”.