OYSIEC: We’ll conduct Election in Only 33 LGAs

 

Ahead of the May 22nd Local Government elections, the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) has revealed that the commission will only conduct the election in the 33 Local Government Areas recognized by the nation’s 1999 constitution (as amended).

Revealing this in an interview with the Tribune, the OYSIEC Electoral Commissioner in-charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Babatunde Adeniyi stated that the commission could not find the Oyo State Law mandating the conduct of election into the Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in its archives.

Adeniyi also hinted that the commission is working with the fact that the nation’s constitution takes precedence over any other law or by-law.

In his words; “We are conducting election into the 33 LGs only because the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognizes 774 local government areas and we have 33 local government areas in Oyo State, not 68 local government areas.

“And that is why this present OYSIEC decided that election be conducted only to the constitutionally recognized local government areas.

“We checked our archives for the said Oyo State Law and do not have that in OYSIEC. We do not have any information that election be conducted for other local government areas aside from the constitutionally recognized 33 local government areas. We don’t have, in our archives, Oyo State Law that says election should be conducted into LCDA apart from the 33 local government areas.

“Moreover, we know whenever there is a law contrary to that of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the constitution takes precedence and any law created should be in tandem with the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”