LAGOS – Mr Victor Dirisu, member, Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) has reiterated calls for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct local government areas election in Nigeria.
Dirisu made the call at polling unit 021 Ohafia Junction of Ago Palace Way, Okota in Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area, on Saturday.
According to Dirisu, INEC conducting the local government election will ensure transparency and the process will not be hijacked by the ruling party in any state.
“Local government areas need to be given full autonomy from governor’s interference in electing their leaders, let them take full responsibility.
“Local government election should be handled by INEC and not the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs).
“This is because we are giving them responsibilities with allocations, so care must be taken to preserve the process determining who heads the councils.
“The governors may decide to favour their cronies but if a third party comes in like an electoral body, different from SIEC, it will work,” he said.
On the turnout for the local government election, he noted that most residents are not conversant with the contestants.
“Even if you tell Mr A to come out and vote, they will not because they are not conversant with the chairmen that they are voting for as many of them did not campaign for people to know them.
“This is the major thing we are facing in the country, the masses need to know their manifesto, the purpose for voting,” he said.
On the official of LASIEC coming late, Dirisu noted that this could be attributed to logistics.
“They came in late because their logistics needed to have been planned earlier but was not.
“One thing we should put into consideration in whatever we do is logistics, who should carry what to what location.
“If logistics is not planned, we are bound to have failure. This shows that LASIEC did not plan well,” he said.
He noted that going forward, the country should be proactive, and put logistics first. (NAN)
