The Chairman
Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC)
Ibadan, Oyo State
27thApril, 2024
Dear Sir,
ABSENCE OF THE OYO STATE INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION (OYSIEC) TO CONDUCT LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION IN OORELOPE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF OYO STATE ON SATURDAY 27THAPRIL, 2024
1. The Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) announced today, the 27th of April, 2024, for the conduct of the Local Government Election in Oyo State. Stakeholders and electorates assembled at the OYSIEC office in the Local Government for the commencement of the exercise.
2. Prior to this, political parties involved made frantic efforts to inspect and take inventory of election materials as earlier announced by the OYSIEC on 26th April, 2024 but theywere denied by the OYSIEC officials, as they claimed they were not under any directives to do so.
3. Party agents converged at the OYSIEC office early in the morning on the 27th of April, 2024, in expectation of the OYSIEC officials to commence the process but the commission did not come out nor communicate to parties and stakeholders on the conduct of the election.
4. Also present at the OYSIEC office in Oorelope Local Government were the officers and men of the Nigerian Police, Directorate of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS), the Nigerian Security andCivilDefence Corps (NSCDC) and other security agencies, who waited for OYSIEC to commence election but it did not happen, up until 1pm.
5. All efforts to reach the Electoral Officer (EO) and his assistant did not yield any result, as the office of OYSIEC in Oorelope Local Government remains padlocked.
6. Our concern on this strange development is the disenfranchisement of electorates that it infers and this is a total departure from the electoral act, the principles and ideologies of our democratic norms.
7. We call on all concerned authorities, security agencies and the general public to take note of this strange development that is ongoing in Oorelope Local Government where no Local Government election was held throughout the ten(10) wards and 94 polling units (PU) of Oorelope Local Government. The entire voting populace wasdisenfranchised and the ruling party in the State, PDP arealready boasting that the results had already been written in their favour and same will be announced before the end of the day.
