Local Government Polls: Oyo State Electoral Commission Set to Screen Candidates
Olubunmi Osoteku, Ibadan.
The Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) says it will in a week’s time commence screening of the candidates of the forthcoming local government election in the State.
The chairman of OYSIEC, Isiaka Olagunju (SAN), stated this in Ibadan, the State capital, while being featured on a guest platform programme tagged “Speak Out”, organized by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Correspondents’ Chapel, Oyo State.
According to him, about 18 political parties had indicated interest to contest in the election.
Speaking on security, Olagunju declared that the commission would engage the services of the Police, the Army, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), but not the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), also known as the Amotekun Corps, in the conduct of the election.
“In election management, the Police is key in security matters. We may not engage Amotekun to avoid the insinuation that they may be used to intimidate the people.
“We are going to engage the Police, the Army, DSS and NSCDC, even the Correctional Centre.
“There are about 6,000 polling units in Oyo State, and 3 officers would be deployed to man each unit.
“The commission is, therefore, looking at engaging about 18,000 personnel to ensure that the election would be conducted as expected.
“Before January, we will roll out adverts to recruit ad hoc staff. So, we will have about 18,000 personnel. We will engage them and give them the necessary training on the conduct of the election,” he stated.
The OYSIEC chairman lamented the low turnout of voters during the 2021 local government election in the State despite the effort of the commission to encourage the electorate. He, however, affirmed that the commission would work at increasing the trust and confidence of the electorate, thereby moving from the 29.6% voter turnout recorded in 2021 to about 60% in the forthcoming election.
Olagunju said that the OYSIEC did not have the power to develop a voters’ register and was already liaising with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the voters’ register and polling units, promising that the voters’ register would be displayed in all the polling units in the State before the election.
He also noted that the commission could not adopt the electronic voting system through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), as used by the INEC in the last general elections in the country, since the law that established the OYSIEC does not permit it.
“We have submitted a bill to the House of Assembly to allow us use, even if it is electronic voting, but nothing has been heard about it yet. If the bill is passed before October, we may still be able to use it, but if not, we will still use the one allowed by OYSIEC laws,” Olagunju noted.
The OYSIEC chairman observed that the local government election is the closest to the people at the grass-roots level, who really desire democratically elected leaders and promised that the commission would allow the choice of the people reflect in the results:
“All the team members in OYSIEC have agreed to allow the will and wish of the people reflect. We hope to deliver on our mandate and leave a legacy that will be a standard for the State and the country.
“Our mandate is very clear, and we have a very good team that can deliver the job.”
He further said that the commission had concluded plans to conduct the local government election in April, 2024.
