OPINION: Adeola OLAITAN
AGBAJE: In response to the above captioned topic by one of the foremost broadcaster in Nigeria, Mr. Tonnie Iredia asking where is the Osun Resident Electoral Commissioner?
Iredia opinion was published by The Vanguard of March 31, 2019 edition.
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I read through the opinion of Iredia I was able to pick some holes in the area where the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Osun, Olusegun Agbaje was indicted for vouching for his officials.
As an observer I and my team observed the first governorship and the rerun elections in 2018 in some areas in the state where elections did not hold as a result of ballot snatching and crisis.
As early as 6am when my team set out to observe the elections in about two Senatorial Districts, in all the places visited the INEC staff arrived at their Polling Units as early between 7am. At 7.30 they are already set for work. This was unprecedented in the history of the electoral umpire.
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The blame for any crisis in the rerun election could not be put at the doorstep of INEC considering the fact that their staff were on ground doing their legitimate duties of conducting election with their materials as stipulated by the electoral law.
All the political party agents were on ground where the elections took place to sign all the result sheets. What evidence does the REC needs than to say the elections went well without any flaw?
With due respect to the Tribunal, how they found out that some of the Form EC8 were altered could not be attributed to Mr Agbaje who was busy supervising the election with the media, security agents, Local and Foreign Observers.
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It is good to note that both Local and Foreign Observers appraised the rerun election as free, fair and credible in all the places the election took place.
Mr Olusegun Agbaje cannot be compelled to resign based on the judgement that was split between the minority and majority.
My Iredia should be patient enough to wait for the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court judgement before asking “where is the Osun Resident Electoral Commissioner?.”
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www.sojworld.com (c) April 1, 2019
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