APC Reiterates Call for Free, Fair LG Election in Oyo State
By Olubunmi Osoteku
The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Oyo State, has renewed its call on Governor Seyi Makinde and the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) to make the conduct of the forthcoming local government council election free, fair and credible, as all eyes are on them.
The party had earlier rescinded its decision to boycott the election on account of the inability of OYSIEC to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as it cited “the interest of the masses who desire urgent discontinuation of attempts by the Makinde administration to completely render the third tier of government useless” as reason for its resolve to participate.
In a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC appealed to voters in the state to shun apathy and come out on April 27 to cast their ballots for its candidates, saying doing so will be the only antidote to the imminent total collapse of the 33 local government councils and erosion of democracy from the grassroots level.
The statement reads in part: “As a responsible political party, the question of whether we would participate in the planned election has been addressed. For the sake of record, we never shied away from performing our duties as this concerns fielding credible candidates for lawful elections and ensuring citizens’ participation in a constitutional democratic processes.
“We insisted on the usage of BVAS for this election because we wanted OYSIEC to be fair to all parties concerned and it should be known that the machines could not function in favour of our party alone on the day of election.
“But when it became obvious that OYSIEC would not be able to secure the machines from INEC, we mobilized some other serious parties and got assurances of idea conduct of the April 27 poll from the state electoral body.
“We got the OYSIEC chairman, Aare Isiaka Olagunju, SAN, and his Commission to restate their commitment to a free, fair and credible poll as they agreed to the following terms; one, only original owner of a PVC, who shows up at the polling unit on the day of the election, will be eligible to cast his or her vote.
“Two, Comprehensive Voter Register will be reproduced and pasted on the wall of each Polling Unit three or four days to the poll.
“Three, no Amotekun Corps, PMS employees or officials of security outfits not owned by the Federal Government will be involved in election duty.
“Four, representatives of each participating political party will be allowed to inspect sensitive poll materials and also follow up on the distribution of same materials to guarantee transparency and accountability.
“Five, foreign and local organisations who have applied for accreditation to serve as Observers and Monitors on the day of election will be considered and given special identification tags, as no elected or appointed officials of either local, state or federal government will have the right to move round in the guise of monitoring the poll.
“Last but not least, results are to be processed and announced at each Polling Unit before transmission to Ward Collation Centre and later Local Government Collation Centre where winners will be declared by the relevant officials.
The party, therefore, urged security agencies and other relevant stakeholders to plan ahead and ensure they play their part before, during and after the election so that the state will be better for it.
Lateefah Ibrahim
