Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) Chairman, Isiaka Olagunju on Thursday has given reasons why the Commission will not use electronic voting in the forthcoming local government election in the state.
The commission has concluded plans to conduct the local government election in April next year.
He said OYSIEC is determined to conduct the election based on the existing state electoral law guiding the conduct of election in the state.
The OYSIEC boss clarified that the state electoral law does not give room for electronic voting and as such , the Commission will only use what is enshrined in the state electoral law, which is manual voting.
OYSIEC Chairman, Isiaka Olagunju (SAN), made this declaration on Thursday while featuring as Guest at the Oyo state Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists ( NUJ) programme tagged ” Speak Out” held at the Chapel’s state office, Mokola , Ibadan.
He explained that few years back, he sent an amendment Bill to the state House of Assembly to allow the use of electronic voting during election, but till date the Bill has not seen the light of the day .
According to him, there is basically no intention to use electronic voting in forthcoming local government election in the state.
He also declared that the Commission has no power to create polling unit , adding that the Commission will only conduct election in the existing polling units in the state.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria further declared that it will not engage the Western Nigerian Security Network (WNSN) also known as Amotekun in the conduct of the forthcoming election.
Olagunju,, while speaking at the event held in Ibadan, noted that the commission will engage the police, army, DSS and NSCDC in the conduct of the election.
He however declared that the commission will not use Amotekun.
He said that the commission will not engage due to the fear by the people that they can be used to intimidate the people in the state.
Olagunju while speaking further explained that the commission will engage about 18,000 personnel to ensure that the election went as expected.
He added that the commission will screen the candidates of the political parties soon.
“In election management, the police is key in security matters. We have visited the police, the army, the DSS, and the NSCDS and the correctional service.
“We may not engage Amotekun to avoid the insinuation that they may be used to intimidate the people. We are going to engage the police, the army, DSS and NSCDC even the correctional centre.
“We have over 6,000 polling units now in Oyo state and we will have at least three people in a polling unit.
“So, we will have about 18,000 personnel. We will engage them and give them the necessary training,” he stated.