Rejects Amotekun, PMS for election duty
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Oyo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday, charged Gov Seyi Makinde and the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) to ensure conduct of free, fair and credible local government elections come April 27.
The party in a statement by its state Publicity Secretary, Comrade Olawale Sadare also demanded that Amotekun Corps, PMS employees or officials of security outfits not owned by the Federal Government should not be involved in election duty.
Oyo APC in the statement stressed that as at present, all eyes are now on Gov Makinde and the OYSIEC for the conduct of an acceptable local government elections in the state.
It emphasized that voters in the state should shun apathy and come out on April 27 to cast their ballots for APC candidates, adding , “doing so would be the only antidote to the imminent total collapse of the 33 local government councils as well as erosion of democracy from the grassroots level.
According to the party, its decision to participate in the local government election after its earlier The broom party had earlier boycott threat is for “the interest of the masses who desired urgent discontinuation of attempts by the Makinde administration to completely render the third tier of government useless.
“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 constitutional democratic processes”, it said.
Oyo APC added, ” 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 functioned 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 of 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 an owner of a PVC, who shows up at the polling unit on the day of the election, will be eligible to cast his or vote vote. Two, Comprehensive Voter Register will be reproduced and pasted on the wall of each Polling Unit three or four days to the poll”
The party maintained, “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 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. In the same vein, we urge the security agencies and other relevant stakeholders to plan ahead and ensure they play their part before, during and after the election so that the Pacesetter state would be better for it.”
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