Tunde Adeleke, Osogbo
In a bid to ensure transparency and fairness in the electoral process, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Osun State, Dr. Mutiu has emphasized on the need for the public and political stakeholders to active scrutinization of the process.
Agboke raised serious concerns over recent custom of targeting INEC officials without valid cause rather than monitoring critical issues on elections.
Speaking at the public lecture of the 2024 press week of the Osun State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Agboke, who was the guest lecturer frowned at rising rate of mistrust in electoral processes of the country.
He encouraged citizens and political stakeholders to question INEC’s procedures, closely monitor the actions and behavior of electoral officials, and hold them accountable for any irregularities.
Agboke said, “In recent time, we discovered that political stakeholders have shifted their attention from the issues they are supposed to monitor, the target is now the officials of the commission and I felt there is no need for all this, unless you see that clearly a particular official has committed an infraction, an infraction that the commission should rise up to.
“The political stakeholders should shift their attention from thinking that they can rubbish officials of the commission, perhaps thinking that by doing that, they will have their way is not the way it should be. When you focus on that, you miss out monitoring the activities, you miss out the monitoring those officials to be able to know whether they are doing the right thing or not.”
He however, reinitiated INEC’s commitment to working alongside relevant authorities to maintain the safety and legitimacy of electoral activities in Osun State and beyond.
Meanwhile, in his address, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment in Osun State, Kolapo Alimi, advocated for a complete overhaul of the voter registration system, similar to the periodic registration conducted during national censuses.
He asserted that the true number of eligible voters can be accurately determined at the unit, ward, local government and the state levels, through fresh registration process every five years, noting that the current practice of merely updating the existing register, rather than conducting a thorough cleanup, has resulted in the inclusion of deceased individuals.
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