The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje has described the call for his resignation by the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as a waste of time. Atiku spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu.
This is in addition to the outcry over social media and a press conference held by opposition gubernatorial candidates raising concerns over the call to engage the Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee led by Musiliu Akinsanya, also known as MC Oluomo, for the movement of sensitive electoral materials.
Mr. Agbaje has however said the commission did not have any agreement with Oluomo. He added that INEC Electoral Officers were responsible for logistics arrangements. According to Punch reporter, Daniel Ayatoye, Mr Agabage said on Thursday, “I don’t have any agreement with Oluomo, I don’t know Oluomo and I have never met him in my life. Whoever is saying that should come out and tell us more about it. So, anybody calling for my resignation is just wasting time. Nobody can distract me from doing my job. I am responsible to the INEC chairman and members of the committee in Abuja, so all these are just distractions. We had a stakeholders meeting and we addressed it.
“On the issue of how to access vehicles, the electoral officers at the local governments are the ones to secure vehicles at their various levels. That has been my pattern since I joined the commission because I want to know who to hold responsible if they don’t commence elections by 8:30 am.
“The electoral officers are already getting the vehicles and they have almost completed the arrangement. Soon, we will be inviting the Federal Road Safety Corps to inspect the vehicles. We told all the political parties that if they have a better arrangement than what we are doing at present, they should tell us.”
Mr Olusegun Agbaje has also been accused on Social media of attempting to disenfranchise South Eastern voters living in Lagos. He stated though that in most cases double registration instead of transfers is the reason for PVC delay. Mr Olusegun Agbaje also insisted that this is possibly why some PVCs have not been issued to some persons.
