The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Lagos State, Olusegun Agbaje, has insisted that there is no going back on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s logistics arrangement for the general election commencing on Saturday, February 25.
Agbaje said that INEC in Lagos was not aware of any court ruling barring the electoral commission from continuing with its planned engagement of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee, or any of its commercial bus drivers, in the distribution of election materials for the February 25 and March 11 polls.
On Monday, Justice Chukwuejekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos issued an interim injunction restraining INEC from going ahead with its arraignment with the parks management committee.
Taking to social media, many Nigerians deplored the plan by INEC Lagos to distribute sensitive election materials using the parks management committee led by Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo, a known chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
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The Labour Party (LP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Boot Party (BP) and their Lagos gubernatorial candidates, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, Funsho Doherty, and Wale Oluwo respectively to stop the arrangement.
INEC is the sole defendant in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/271/2023.
In an interlocutory injunction on Monday, Justice Aneke restrained INEC from engaging the parks management committee or any of its commercial bus drivers for the distribution of the election materials pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
In a reaction on Tuesday, the REC in Lagos, Agbaje, said he was not aware of the lawsuit as he hadn’t been served.
“Nobody is dealing with Oluomo here. I said it several times. We are not dealing with Oluomo.
“The owners of the vehicles are at the local government level.
“Anybody who says we are dealing with Oluomo should provide the evidence. And we don’t have any problem with mobilisation in Lagos State.
“We don’t have any challenge at all in INEC Lagos State. All the arrangement is going on smoothly. We are not aware of any court judgment because nobody served us any court papers.
“The issue of Oluomo does not arise in the first instance. We are going on with our arrangement and we don’t have anything to fear,” Agbaje said.