*Agbaje refusal to work with neutral bodies NURTW, RTEAN but interested party of MC Oluomo a compromise – Atiku, others
*Allegations against Agbaje unfounded – INEC Spokesman
By OUR REPORTER
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it will not redeploy the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State, Mr. Segun Agbaje, despite identified implications of his continuing to oversee elections in the nation’s most complex state.
Two strong and very eminent Nigerians in the persons of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and former Minister of Communications and General Officer Commanding (GOC), Third Armoured Division Nigerian Army, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, had respective called for the immediate removal of Agbaje as REC in the state for his public statement that he would have no option than to use the Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya a.k.a. MC Oluomo-led Lagos State Parks Management Committee, a state sanctioned body for the agbero, for the distribution of election materials in the upcoming elections in the state.
The two public figures as well as the Labour Party (LP) kicked against the INEC state representative’s plan to transport electoral materials through MC Oluomo, an interested party as indisputable All Progressives Congress (APC)’s chieftain and close ally of APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying arguing that doing so does not point to an INEC ready to achieve free, fair credible polls in Lagos State during the elections.
Atiku particularly called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Segun Agbaje, for alleged partisanship and compromise. In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said it was curious that Agbaje had insisted on using the Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee led by transport kingpin, Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council to distribute materials for elections of which his own party and political principal are participants.
The PDP’s presidential candidate 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.
He stated, “The law is clear that only a court has the power to proscribe an organisation. That was why the Federal Government had to go to court to proscribe the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).
“What Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu did in Lagos State was to arbitrarily announce a ban on the activities of the NURTW because the organisation suspended MC Oluomo, the APC’s henchman. INEC must not promote illegality by working with a partisan organisation which is filled with APC members that are working for Bola Tinubu.
“How could such people be given sensitive materials to be distributed across Lagos on election day? This has already undermined the possibility of a free and fair election. INEC must sanction Mr. Agbaje for insisting on using MC Oluomo’s committee despite protests from members of the public.”
Atiku recalled that Agbaje was the REC who superintended over the “fraudulent 2018 governorship election rerun in Osun State which even the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union discredited”
He added, “Recall that it was Mr Agbaje who superintended over the fraudulent and violent Osun governorship rerun which produced Gboyega Oyetola as governor. US Consul General, John Bray was spot on when he stated, ‘We witnessed what appeared to be incidents of interference and intimidation of voters and heard reports of harassment or party monitors, journalists and domestic observers.”
The former Vice president noted that even election monitoring groups like the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) dismissed the Osun rerun as “fraudulent and anti-democratic”.
He added, “Unfortunately, it is the same Agbaje, who could not effectively supervise a rerun in a few polling units that have been given the task of superintending the election in Nigeria’s largest state with over seven million registered voters. The election is doomed to fail if INEC doesn’t do the right thing by removing him.
“We remind the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, that this will be his last general election before the end of his tenure. We ask him to protect his legacy by removing Mr Segun Agbaje if he insists that MC Oluomo must be the one to handle sensitive INEC materials. This election must not only be fair but it must be seen to be fair as well.”
But commenting on this in a chat with reporters on Wednesday February 15, Mr. Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said Agbaje could not be removed over “unfounded allegations”.
He dismissed the allegations against the REC, describing it as deliberate misinformation and distortion of facts, not needed with days to this year’s general elections.
Oyekanmi, who urged those demanding Agbaje’s redeployment to perish the thought, also urged the two political parties calling for Agbaje’s redeployment to respect the boundaries of the relationship between the commission and all political parties.
“Let me make one thing clear upfront. Mr. Olusegun Agbaje will not be removed as the REC for Lagos over unfounded allegations. He will not only conduct the presidential/national assembly election scheduled for 25th February 2023, he will also superintend over the governorship/state House of Assembly election holding on 11th March.
“He is a conscientious, honest, dependable, and hardworking Resident Electoral Commissioner. His integrity speaks for him in all the places where he had served,” he said.
According to him, during the recent Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) that took place between June 2021 and July 2022, Lagos State under Agbaje registered the highest number of voters in the country being 585,629.
Oyekanmi said, “On 27th January this year, we announced that out of the 940,200 PVCs delivered to Lagos State as of that date, 839,720 PVCs representing 89.3 percent had been collected. This debunks the allegation that the Lagos REC deliberately withheld the PVCs belonging to persons from a particular region of the country.
“As for the movement of election materials in Lagos State, the commission is engaging individual vehicle owners. Unions don’t have vehicles and even if they have some, they cannot possibly provide the number of vehicles that the commission requires to conduct the general election.
“Rather, the unions are made up of individuals that own vehicles. You then have to negotiate with the vehicle owners and join the unions as witnesses and for accountability purposes. We have been conducting elections in Lagos and we have been using these individuals’ that own vehicles that meet our specification.”
He assured Lagosians and voters who intend to vote in Lagos that their votes will count as the commission has not candidate in Lagos State or anywhere in the country for the elections.
