From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted that it will go ahead with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee for the movement of staff and material to Polling Units within the state on election day.
The decision to use the Park and Garage Management Committee led by Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has come under serious controversy.
The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, only recently called for the removal of Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Olusegun Agbaje, because of his insistence on using the Oluomo-led Park and Garage Management Committee.
Atiku had described as watery Agbaje’s excuse that INEC would not be able to use the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) because they had been barred in Lagos State.
However, reacting to the lingering controversy, the electoral umpire insisted on using them but assured that they must sign an oath of neutrality.
Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, who defended Lagos REC, warned in a chat with Daily Sun that: “politicians are not in the position to dictate to the commission to remove a REC. The Lagos REC’s explanation was deliberately taken out of context, which is unfortunate.
“What he simply said was that the Lagos state government has outlawed the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) which we have a MoU with and as a responsible organisation, we cannot engage the NURTW for the movement of materials in Lagos.
“The Lagos state Park and Garage Committee is a creation of the Lagos state government. It is not the property of an individual. The commission has an election to conduct and we need vehicles to move our materials. In Lagos, we have to interact with an institution recognised by the state government to achieve our purpose,” Oyekanmi explained.
Commenting further, he said that “in doing this, we will engage those who own the specific vehicles that we require to fulfil our purpose. All those to be engaged must sign our Oath of Neutrality. Even the NURTW members in other states have to sign the Oath of Neutrality before we can engage them. We also have strict terms and conditions that they must comply with.
“So, this is not about MC Oluomo. We have no business with MC Oluomo. We are dealing with an institution recognised by the Lagos state government and even at that, the movement of materials will be done on our own terms,” he explained.
The CPS advised that “if any political party has a problem with that, it should use the normal channel to initiate a discussion with the commission, not by issuing a press statement demanding for the removal of our REC. The REC will not be removed.”