Court can’t stop Oyo LG election, polls will hold Saturday —OYSIEC chairman

Chairman of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC), Chief Jide Ajeigbe, has said the commission is empowered by the law that created it to ignore any court order asking it to stop the conduct of the council election slated for this week Saturday.

Chief Ajeigbe said the commission was fully prepared to conduct the polls and would go ahead, having done all that was necessary to ensure a hitch-free election.

He spoke on Political Circuit, an interview programme on Fresh F.M Ibadan, on Saturday, against the backdrop of a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan which ordered the commission not to conduct election into the newly created Local Council Development Authorities (LCDAs).

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The chairman, who claimed he only read about the court order in newspapers, said as of Saturday, OYSIEC was yet to be served a copy of the interim order of the court and would not act on hearsay or media reports.

He disclosed that over 16, 000 ad hoc staff engaged for the election had been trained and made ready for the election, just as he said the ballot papers for the polls had been printed and deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for safe-keeping.

He remarked further that the election would be conducted to elect 68 council chairman and 610 councilors throughout the state between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. when the exercise would span.

According to him, there will be restriction of human and vehicular movements during the duration of the election, just as results will be announced at the polling units.

On the N100, 000 and N150, 000 levy imposed on chairmanship and councillorship candidates by the commission, he explained that the commission was empowered by law to so levy the candidates.

He denied the commission being under any pressure from the state government to act in favour of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), vowing to be fair to all.