The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Organisation has called for the deployment and blacklisting of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State Olusegun Agbaje, for alleged partiality and partisanship.

The campaign also dispelled the media report that Labour Party in South West has collapsed into the All Progressives Congress (APC), noting that all the names listed in the report have not been associated with the party in the last six months. 

Director General of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation Balogun Akin Osuntokun, at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, described as the disturbing, the signals coming from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Osuntokun noted that the commission failed to deny the news report that it planned to engage the services of Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee, led by Mr. Musiliu Akinsanya, who also popularly as MC Oluomo, a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, for the distribution of sensitive election materials in the forthcoming presidential election in Lagos. 

He warned that this is capable of jeopardising the election operation, stating that the explanation given by Festus Okoye, Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of the commission does not go far enough in refuting INEC’s association with Lagos park management committee.

According to him, “the public statements by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Olusegun Agbaje, bordering on sectional bias and resentment, have shown overwhelming partisanship on his side, and therefore, he cannot be trusted with the onerous task of conducting an unbiased election, in a volatile state like Lagos.

“We recall further, with apprehension, that the heavily criticised 2018 Osun governorship rerun election, wherein Mr. Gboyega Oyetola was controversially declared the winner, to the dismay of the populace, including international observers, was also conducted by this same Olusegun Agbaje.”

Osuntokun demanded the REC’s redeployment and his blacklisting, adding that his recent actions have raised doubts about his suitability as an election supervisor, “not just in Lagos State, but anywhere in decent society. 

“There are far too many capable Nigerians of good professional and ethical standard available within INEC, to conduct an acceptable election, than to run the risk of any unpopular pre-determined outcome, which his conduct, strongly suggest.” 

The LP presidential campaign DG also called for an immediate cancellation of the logistics contract entered into, between INEC and the Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee.

“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,” he stated.

Osuntokun noted 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.”

He added that the campaign organisation’s fears were reinforced by the recent action of INEC in endorsing a tweet, where the LP presidential candidate was maligned by another presidential candidate. 

The DG condemned the attacks on LP supporters during its mega rally at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, last Saturday,  and in other parts of the country, and called on the Inspector General of Police, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, the Department of State Services, the Civil Defence and all security agencies, “to deploy intelligence and reinforcements all over Lagos, and indeed in all other potential flashpoint and locations across the country, immediately, as the election season is already underway.”