Court forbids INEC from using MC Oluomo to distribute election materials

In response to an appeal from the Labour Party, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos, on Monday, granted an application stopping the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from using Musliu Akinsanya, better known as MC Oluomo, the chairman of the Lagos Parks and Garages management, to distribute election materials in Lagos.

The Labour Party had raised the alarm over the plan by the Commission to engage the services of the Parks and Garages members to distribute election materials for the upcoming elections.

At a news conference in Abuja, the campaign council’s director general, Balogun Akin Osuntokun, stated that the party vehemently rejected the notion and requested that the logistics contract be immediately cancelled.

Osuntokun bemoaned that the Commission has continued to send troubling signals and substantial causes for doubt and mistrust regarding its impartiality and with complete disdain for the current mood of the country, characterizing the alleged plan as an act of insensitivity by the INEC.

“A few days ago also, speculation and rumours emerged, that INEC had engaged the services of Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee, led by Mr Musiliu Akinsanya, also known as MC Oluomo, a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council and a known loyalist of the presidential candidate of the APC, in the distribution of sensitive election materials in the forthcoming presidential election in Lagos.

Read also:‘Don’t give MC Oluomo access to ballot papers’, Atiku cautions INEC on use of transporters in Lagos

“However, as days passed by, it became clear to us, that the news report was correct, especially, as the explanation given by Mr Festus Okoye, INEC Director of Information and Voter Education, does not go far enough in refuting this association.

“This partisan and provocative action by INEC, in entrusting the conveyance of election materials into the hands of agents of an interested political party in Lagos State, is reprehensible and unprecedented in the annals of Nigeria’s electoral and political history.

“It is a matter of grave concern, that barely 12 days to the 2023 presidential election, the INEC leadership led by Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, has continued to give disturbing signals and strong reason for doubt and suspicion, on its impartiality, and with total disregard for the mood of the nation, at this time,” Osuntokun had said.

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