AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
The Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission has disclosed that all hands are on deck to conduct the local government election in the state by April next year.
The Commission indicated that efforts would be made to sensitize the residents on the need to determine those to steer the ship of governance in their various localities to aid grassroots development.
The OYSIEC chairman, Isiaka Olagunju, made the disclosure at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Correspondents Chapel’s guest platform programme tagged ‘Speak Out’.
Olagunju, who harped on the importance of the exercise, said that “we visited the local government councils to encourage our people to exercise their civic right preparatory to the last council poll.
“We did that to increase the trust and confidence in the electorate. Of course, we did not achieve high turn out of voters then but we were able to achieve 25.6 per cent of voters turn. We want to move from that to, at least, 50per cent in the next council election in the state.
“I remember in Tede, one elderly man pleaded that we should do everything to ensure that the local government election was free and fair. That encouraged me. Now, we want everybody to give us necessary support.
“We don’t have the power to create voter register but we rely on the INEC record. We are also going to use the voting centres that were used during the general elections in the state.”
On security, he said that “We visited the police, army, DSS, the Civil Defense and the Prisons in the state for their support. Let us consider what happened in the last election in Oyo State. There was peace and we want the same thing to happen.
Stating that the Commission would engage about 18,000 personnel in the conduct of the election, he disclosed that all candidates presented by political parties would soon be screened.
He said, “In election management, the police are key. We have visited the police, the army, the DSS, NSCDC and the Correctional Service. We may not engage Amotekun to avoid the insinuation that they may be used to intimidate the people.
“We have over 6,000 polling units now in Oyo State and we will have, at least, three people in a polling unit so, we will have about 18,000 personnel. We will engage them and give them the necessary training.”
