Lagos REC will not be removed over ‘unfounded allegations’ – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it would not redeploy the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State, Mr Segun Agbaje despite recent calls by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Agbaje’s recent statement that the electoral commission has no option other than to work with the Lagos State Parks Management Committee to distribute election materials in the state has generated complaints. The committee is headed by Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya (popularly known as MC Oluomo), who is a leading supporter of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Agbaje’s statement generated mixed reactions, including from Phrank Shaibu, an aide to the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who said that working with the parks management committee would “promote illegality”, as the committee is a “partisan organisation which is filled with APC members”.

In an interview on Wednesday, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC National Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi said that there is no reason for Agbaje to be removed from Lagos.

“Let me make one thing clear upfront. Mr Agbaje will not be removed as the REC for Lagos over unfounded allegations”, the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Oyekanmi as saying.

“He will not only conduct the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for 25 February, but he will also supervise the governorship and state house of assembly elections to be held on 11 March.

“He is a conscientious, honest, dependable, and hardworking REC. His integrity speaks for him in all the places where he has served.

“Let me break this down for you. During the recent Continuous Voter Registration that took place between June 2021 and July 2022, Lagos State under Agbaje registered the highest number of voters in the country – 585,629.

“On 27 January this year, we announced that out of the 940,200 PVCs (Permanent Voter Cards) delivered to Lagos State as of that date, 839,720 PVCs, representing 89.3 percent, had been collected.

“This debunks the allegation that the Lagos REC deliberately withheld the PVCs belonging to persons from a particular region of the country.

“The unions don’t have vehicles, and even if they have some, they cannot possibly provide the number of vehicles that the commission requires to conduct the general election. Rather, the unions are made up of individuals that own vehicles.

“You then have to negotiate with the vehicle owners and join the unions as witnesses and for accountability purposes”.