By Adeyemi Adeleye/Taiye Olayemi
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, says the commission’s neutrality is indicated in the outcome of the collated results of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections in the state.
Recall that some leaders of the Labour Party (LP), which had the highest number of votes according to the collation on the presidential election in the state, had earlier called for the removal of Agbaje in the build up to the polls over some allegations against him.
Agbaje told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday, ” The commission does not work for any political party. No commissioner in INEC influences any election. Even, the Chairman of the commission (Prof. Mahmood Yakubu) cannot do that
“Let us collaborate. Fake news, misinformation and disinformation will not help this country.
“We remain undisturbed and cannot be distracted. Some people think REC can change figures. Figures cannot be changed with BVAS. Things have changed. All of us can see from the results,” he said.
Agbaje urged stakeholders to learn to collaborate more with INEC rather than resorting to social media peddling falsehood
The REC commended all stakeholders who had contributed to the success of the elections and collation of results.
He specifically applauded the collation officers, security agencies, domestic and foreign observers, media and staff of the commission
On the allegation of manipulation levelled against the election process by the PDP State Collation Agent, retired Capt. Tunji Shelle, Agbaje disagreed with him.
“If the election was not free and fair and all the party agents signed the results at the polling unit, registration level and local government level, I believe he (PDP) is not being sincere,” he said.
On INEC’s preparations for the March 11 Governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state, he said the space of days in-between the two elections gave opportunity to sit down and address challenges.
Meanwhile, the APC State Collation Agent, Mr Fouad Oki, while reacting on the outcome of the Presidential Election in the state, said “democracy at work. We are democrats.”
He, however, called for a review of the nation’s electoral process, especially in the deployment of technology to make its operation seamless.
“When you deploy technology, you must expect some hiccups and I think it was several hiccups that were created by BVAS is still part is the learning process,” he said.
Oki said that the effect of the last two weeks government policies had a causative effect on the voters turnout and eventual outcome of the elections.
“I am sure the next two weeks will be quite different,” he said.
The Presidential and NASS elections were held simultaneously across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday. (NAN)
