LG Poll: IPAC pass vote of Confidence on OYSIEC

The Inter-Party Advisory Council, Oyo state wing has passed a vote of confidence in the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission ahead of May 22, 2021, Local Government Election in the state, saying that IPAC is confident that OYSIEC will conduct free, fair, and credible polls.


The Public Secretary, Oyo state wing of IPAC; Engr Gbeminiyi Ayodele disclosed this while speaking today as a guest on a radio programme Bosenlo on Agidigbo FM (88.7 FM).


Engr. Gbeminiyi further revealed that the build-up to the election informed IPAC of OYSIEC’s readiness to conduct a free and fair election which can be imitated by other states.


In his words: “In Nigeria, we have 18 political parties, 17 want to participate in the election wholeheartedly without violence or rancor. The election we are familiar with, even the one APC conducted in Oyo state that the so-called ‘duly elected chairmen’ approached the court on was conducted for only 4 parties out of the 90 registered political parties in the state as at the time of the election. This goes to tell us that OYSIEC cuts across all political parties. This is because we see a reason to participate in the election.”


Engr. Gbeminiyi stated that the council is against the call by the Oyo All Progressives Party (APC) to postpone the forthcoming elections in the state saying that doing so will be tantamount to ridiculing the other registered 17 political parties. He also declared that postponing the election might lead to the other political parties deciding to boycott the polls in protest.


“We have conducted 5 stakeholders meeting in which APC participated in four of them. In the guideline of OYSIEC, when the election was postponed for a week, all participating parties were called to ensure inclusiveness because we don’t know when the Eid-el Fitri celebration will fall on. We all agreed on the new date.”


“When they place the request of APC and we are aware of their antecedents and the other parties have commenced campaigns, assuming that other parties have not commenced campaigns, there is no problem. Out of 18 political parties, that the poll will be shifted because of one political party, it’s not done and not acceptable. So we do not accept the postponement of the election to a later date,” he said.