April 2, 2015
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- Law News
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Oyo State, Rufus Akeju, has warned aggrieved politicians in the state to desist from violence but to seek lawful means to air their grievances over the Saturday’s elections.
Thousands of supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, Accord Party and Labour Party had on Monday besieged the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Ibadan to protest against the results of the elections in the state.
But Akeju, at a press conference on Wednesday, said he had not received any petition from any of the protesting parties.
He said if any party had issues with the results, its agents should not have signed the result sheets.
He said, “The current electoral system has in-built checks that make the electoral process transparent. All the representatives of the political parties were given the necessary privileges to monitor the elections. After the elections on Saturday, we expect that if any party has any grievance, they should have assembled their facts and head to the tribunal.
“Aggrieved politicians are hereby advised to assemble their facts, gather their documents and head for the election petition tribunal. Generalised condemnation and rejection of the election is a disservice to the electoral system as well as an insult to the patriotic voters, who sacrificed time and comfort to participate in the election. We should all be careful not to discourage the electorate with our utterances.”
Akeju attributed many voided votes in the last elections to poor voter education, noting that many voted for parties which did not field any candidate.
The REC further appealed to politicians in the state to be peaceful, assuring them that INEC would provide a level-playing ground for all in the subsequent elections.
He added, “Let me remind the voters in Oyo State that the governorship and House of Assembly elections will still hold as scheduled on Saturday, April 11.We promise to improve on our last performance .Your votes that counted last Saturday will count again.
“I passionately plead with you to surpass the last voter turnout so as to consolidate our democracy. We assure the political parties of the provision of level-playing field for all. We shall continue to be unbiased and impartial.”
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