Governor Seyi Makinde
Following the rancour that trailed the dissolution of elected local government chairmen by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, the governor, has said that his administration would await the final court judgement on the case, which is still pending in court.
Makinde made this known on Thursday, during the inauguration of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) board, held at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan.
According to him, the issue of local government elections has a remained tourney one, since he assumed office in 2019.
He noted that, on assumption of office, he had to take the toughest decision of inaugurating local government caretaker chairmen to fill the void office of the suspended chairmen, adding that the decision did not come easily.
His words: “The issue of local government elections has remained a tourney one since we took over office in 2019.”
“Of course, it is a matter of records that we had to take the tough decision of inaugurating local government caretaker chairmen to fill the void office of the suspended chairmen. The decision did not come easily.”
“We still await what the court will say; we are law abiding administration. But we have to move forward with governance and we recognise the importance of the government of the grassroots level.”
“Today, as I am inaugurating the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, the ” Independent” in their name means that they are not to be influenced by any arm of government. I fully intend to make sure they perform their duties without fear or favour and in an unbiased way.”
I believe the mandate of this board is to conduct an inclusive elections; we are not here to play.”
“I was reading some days ago, some parties will like to unseat in 2023, it’s okay. Firstly, I have not indicated I want to run in 2023. It’s too early. I may or may not. I have a second address and that is what we want to encourage in our space. This board will have free hand.”
“If you want to unseat me, fine but you should contest and win many councillorship seats as many as possible, then we know they are really serious.”
“They should calm down. Elections should not be war or should be a do- or -die affairs. Elections in a democracy should be about the will of the people.”
“The state apparatus should not be used to disenfranchise the people. I am saying to this board, the will of the people must remain sacrosanct. We believe you are men and woman of integrity,” Makinde posited.
He charged the newly inaugurated state electoral body to imbibe the sense of urgency and conduct credible local government elections in the state within the shortest possible time.
“We knew this would come, we have already allocated money on the Oyo State budget of this year for you to conduct elections,” the governor stated.
