A one time Local Government Chairmanship Candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP in Ogun state, Hon. Bankole Adewale Saheed has rated Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission , OGSIEC low on the conduct of the just concluded 2024 local government election in the state.
Honourable Bankole while speaking with journalists on the election explained that the OGSIEC performance is below the expected standard because the election was not fair as expected in various places visited.
He also lamented the late arrival of electoral materials and the OGSIEC Ad-hoc staff in various polling units which subjected lots of electorates to be stranded at their polling units.
He also alleged that Vote cast were not counted at some polling boots before the ballot boxes were taken to collation centres, which he said pointed out to the fact that the process was not transparent.
The former ZLP candidate maintained that Ogun state is known for good things and the local government election is falling short of Ogun state standard.
He therefore commended people of Ogun state , especially the electorates for towing the part of peace during the election despite provocation from different quarters.
” The election did not still go as expected, it was marred with illegalities in several polling boots, at some polling unit, the ballot papers were not counted, they just packed them and took everything to collation centres. And that actions cast a doubt on the whole process.”
He therefore urged the National Assembly to pass the law that will empower INEC or any other independent bodies to conduct local government elections in Nigeria because that is the only way individual votes can count. That will also put an end to the situation whereby a single party will win all posts as the case is in every state of the federation where the ruling party wins all seats.
” I am using this opportunity to also support the call for the national assembly to pass the bill that will empower INEC or any other Independent body to conduct local government elections because that is the only way our votes will count. ” Honourable Bankole Concluded.
