Ogun Assembly tasks electoral commission on due process

Ogun State House of Assembly has charged the management of the State Independent Electoral Commission to adhere strictly to its electoral guidelines in the forthcoming November 16 Local Government election in the state.

The Speaker, Oludaisi Elemide, gave the charge on Friday during an interface between OGSIEC and the State Inter-party Advisory Council led by its Chairman, Sanyaolu Abayomi at the instance of the State House of Assembly.

Elemide in the company of his colleague-lawmakers, said, “The management of OGSIEC must ensure that all the processes leading to the election are in accordance with the nation’s constitution and the state electoral act.

“We are assuring that the Assembly is also ready to collaborate with the Commission to ensure a free and fair election.”

Also contributing, the Minority Leader, Lukman Adeleye and a member representing Ewekoro State Constituency, Yusuf Amosun, challenged the Commission to ensure that all the processes leading to the election follow the nation’s constitution so as to prevent avoidable litigation before, during and after the election.

The lawmakers noted that the Assembly was ready to assist in amending the state electoral law if the need arises.

Speaking earlier, the IPAC Public Relations Officer, Itunu Abioro, requested a further reduction in the administrative fees of N250,000 per Chairmanship candidate and N150,000 per councilorship candidate being charged by the Commission to allow more candidates to participate in the local government election.

Responding, the Commissioner 1 in charge of Operations, Mr. Tunji Akonni, said that the Commission has continued to interface with all stakeholders including IPAC in the course of the election process and that OGSIEC has always followed the electoral guidelines approved by the assembly in line with the state electoral law.

Akonni counselled the political parties to present credible candidates, engage in vigorous campaigns and present credible party agents to monitor their vote at the polling booth, recalling that the majority of political parties did not have party agents to represent them during election days.