Atiku’s aide to INEC: Lagos parks committee filled with APC members — don’t promote illegality

Phrank Shaibu, an aide to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has faulted the use of the Lagos parks management committee for the distribution of election materials in the state.

The committee is chaired by Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos state, 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) in the state.

On Tuesday, Olusegun Agbaje, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) resident electoral commissioner (REC) in Lagos, said he had no option other than to work with the parks committee to distribute election materials in the state.

In a statement on Wednesday, Shaibu said working with the MC Oluomo-led committee would undermine the credibility of the polls in Lagos.

“INEC must not promote illegality by working with a partisan organisation which is filled with APC members that are working for Bola Tinubu,” he said.

“How could such people be given sensitive materials to be distributed across Lagos on election day?

“This has already undermined the possibility of a free and fair election. INEC must sanction Mr. Agbaje for insisting on using MC Oluomo’s committee despite protests from members of the public.

“Agbaje, who could not effectively supervise a rerun in a few polling units [in Osun in 2018] that has been given the task of superintending the election in Nigeria’s largest state with over seven million registered voters. The election is doomed to fail if INEC doesn’t do the right thing by removing him.

“We remind the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, that this will be his last general election before the end of his tenure.

“We ask him to protect his legacy by removing Mr. Segun Agbaje if he insists that MC Oluomo must be the one to handle sensitive INEC materials. This election must not only be fair but it must be seen to be fair as well.”