INEC ready for Saki-West by-election in Oyo–REC
Ibadan: The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Oyo State, says it is ready for the Saturday’s by-election in two registration Areas of the Saki West State Constituency.
INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Oyo State, Dr Adeniran Tella, gave the assurance in a release on Thursday in Ibadan when he led stakeholders to take delivery of the sensitive materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Ibadan.
Tella led some senior staff of the Commission, representatives of the two political parties in the election- All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a section of the media and the security agencies to CBN to receive all the sensitive materials for the by-election.
According to him, the by-election is as a result of over-voting, BVAS by-passed and the difference in the margin of lead between APC and PDP in Gidigbo/Kinnikini in Registration Area 06 and Sepeteri/Bapon in Registration Area 11 of Saki West Local Government Area in the 2023 state House of Assembly election.
On the security arrangement for the election, Tella said: “We have held series of meetings with the Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) and they have assured us all that anybody who try to disrupt the election in the area will have himself or herself to blame.”
The INEC boss advised that only voters from the affected areas which he said were over one thousand in the Polling Units were expected to come out and vote.
In his remarks, the PDP representative, Pastor Ogungbenro applauded the REC for his transparency and opennesss with which he had been conducting the affairs of the Commission since his assumption of office in Oyo State.
Ogungbenro said:”All the materials were brought out for us for inspection and they were intact.
His counterpart in APC, Alhaji Olanite Tajudeen said that he was impressed about the whole arrangements and enjoined INEC Oyo State to maintain its neutrality and provide a level play ground for the two political parties in the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission in Ibadan distributed sensitive election materials to its office in the Saki West LGA on Thursday.
The election rerun for the Oyo House of Assembly seat results from a court order regarding the March 18, 2023 election.
The Court of Appeal had sacked the lawmaker representing the Saki West state constituency, Shittu Ibrahim of APC, who was declared the winner of the election.
The PDP candidate, Julius Okedoyin, who was not satisfied with the result, approached the court, and the court subsequently ordered a rerun.
