The Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must treat its gaffes committed in Saturday’s presidential election as by-gones that must not be repeated during the governorship election on March 11.
LP’s State Legal Adviser, Barrister Abass Arisekola Ibrahim stated this in a press interview in the party’s office in Lagos on Tuesday.
He expressed disappointment that INEC in Lagos went ahead to flout a Federal High Court order which barred it from “engaging and/or consummating any MoU with the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s associate and party chieftain, Musiliu Akinsanya a.k.a. MC Olu-Omo and his Lagos State Parks and Management Committee of transporters from election materials distribution, the electoral umpire went ahead with him”.
Ibrahim said this resulted in delayed arrival of election materials to polling units in many parts of the state, causing people who had enthusiastically trooped out to freely express their franchise not to get accredited until very late in the afternoon and voting into late evening of the day.
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“It was a deliberate act by the APC cronies allegedly used for logistics and distribution of the election materials.
“They knew places our party could have more votes and frustrated their resolve to cast votes for our party, hence the delay in arrival of the election materials,” he said.
“It must not happen during the governorship and House of Assembly elections coming March 11, 2023 because Lagosians, who voted on February 25, are still resolved and will stand for their rights against such election misconduct,” he stressed.
Arisekola said, “In the presidential and national assembly elections this past weekend, it was obvious that INEC failed totally on the issue of logistics, it failed to distribute election materials to several polling units as expected. In some areas, election materials got there around 2:00pm, 3:00pm and accreditation did not start in those areas until the evening hours of the day.”
On the causes of those failures he said, “It is either INEC has failed to comply with the order of court as of Friday before the election suggesting that it still went ahead to use the same MC Olu-Omo and his Lagos State Parks and Management Committee to which they have known areas that opposition parties could get enough votes and that they have delayed the election materials from getting to those places intentionally.
“This is so because it is obvious that if INEC wants to do its job appropriately, as argued by myself in open court, there are other logistics agencies that have proven to be neutral, that belongs to no political affiliated individuals such as Uber, Taxify, Bolt that could be engaged. We all know that Lagos is now a hub for logistics companies, we have private owners of dispatch riders and other modes of transportation. GIG and other transport companies are there. INEC could have easily tracked the movements of these election materials and its ad hoc and current staff to handle the issue of logistics and distribute materials to those various polling units so as to achieve a more free, fair, credible and transparent election. However, for reasons only known to the electoral umpire, INEC failed to do that.”
Also the Labour Party’s State Legal Adviser expressed dismay about INEC failure to comply with the sections of the Electoral Act and the Regulation and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections 2022 created by INEC itself in line with the Electoral Act and which he blamed for the controversy that characterized the presidential election results and which he said must not recur in the governorship and House of Assembly elections coming up on March 11th, 2023.
“On this ground we are making plans to approach a court of competent jurisdiction to mandate the INEC to ensure that it engages the services of qualified logistics company for the distribution of election materials within Lagos and a mandamus order directing the INEC to comply with the provisions of Section 148 of the Electoral Act together with the provisions of Regulation 37 and 38 of its Electoral Guidelines that insists that, “INEC shall paste EC60(e) at the polling unit conspicuously and upload the scanned copy of the EC8A” to the INEC results Viewing portal, the IReV, and use BVAS TO upload EC8A which they have failed to do in this circumstance.”
Asked what his party will do in case the candidate that lost presidential election to Labour Party in his Lagos stronghold decides to win the governorship and House of Assembly positions at all cost on March 11, he said, “All we are saying is that Lagosians, who have resolved about the leadership they want, will stand with and protect their votes.”