As INEC Hires MC Oluomo’s Parks Mgt Committee

The presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, last Wednesday called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately remove its Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Lagos State, Olusegun Agbaje, for alleged partisanship and  insisting on using the Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee, headed by transport kingpin, Musiliu Akinsanya, aka MC Oluomo, who he said was a member of the Presidential Campaign Council of All Progressives Congress (APC).

In a display of what many have described as an act of insensitivity, the Lagos REC last week said the commission would work with the MC Oluomo-led committee for the distribution of election materials and personnel in the state.

 Agbaje, who spoke during the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting at the commission’s office in Lagos, said working with the committee led by Oluomo, would not compromise the elections.

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had set up the parks committee after banning the operations of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).

Sanwo-Olu appointed MC Oluomo, who is a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council as the head of the committee.

Oluomo had mobilised the transporters to hold solidarity rallies for the APC.

Addressing the matter, Agbaje said: “We are not dealing with Oluomo, we are dealing with the park managers. Individual people that have vehicles are those we are going to use. So, it will be working against the law if INEC has to continue to work with NURTW or any other group that is proscribed in the state,” he said.

Agbaje claimed that INEC would be dealing with the drivers and not Oluomo when he knows that Oluomo’s word is law among the Lagos drivers.

Agbaje cannot claim that he does not know the capacity of Oluomo and his boys in Lagos. These are the people that control the touts who are the cause of the nightmare of Lagos motorists.

During elections, these boys, who are touts are deployed to areas that are densely populated by the supporters of opposition parties to disrupt elections.

With the decision of INEC to entrust sensitive materials in the hands of a group that is sympathetic to APC, many believe the forthcoming elections in Lagos may be marred by non-arrival and late arrival of sensitive materials in areas controlled by the opposition parties. Who says materials cannot be diverted to APC officials when members and supporters of the party are in charge of the distribution?