29th September, 2014
Eromosele Ebhomele
Chairman of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), Justice Fatai Adeyinka (Rtd), has told members of the Lagos State House of Assembly that elections into the 57 local government councils and local council development areas cannot hold this year.
Adeyinka said there were some challenges that needed to be met before elections into the councils can hold.
The current tenure of elected officials in the council ends in October and the House of Assembly had expressed concern about what would happen at the tenure expiration of the council chairmen and councillors.
As a result, the House had last week invited officials of the LASIEC to explain the situation.
Speaking before members of the House on Monday, Adeyinka said LASIEC had recommended the creation of additional wards in the state to the state government.
Apart from this, he explained that the current voters register had not been updated since 2011 when it was last used and as such, was no longer valid.
Adeyinka told the lawmakers: “we need an updated voter’s register, which is with the Independent National Electoral Commission and we have requested but INEC is not willing to release it.
“We don’t want to conduct the election with the voter’s register that we have because it does not contain the addresses of electorate. So if we decide to use an old register, we will be disenfranchising some voters from performing their right.
“Also, there is the need to create additional polling booths to the ones we have on ground, which is also the responsibility of INEC. Until these constraints are resolved, we won’t be able to conduct elections into the local governments. Definitely, election cannot hold this year.”
Deputy Speaker of the House, Taiwo Kolawole, who presided over the sitting, said the House does not want to allow any vacuum in the councils
“The LASIEC chairman has told us that election cannot hold this year because of some constraints.
“LASIEC doesn’t have the power to create additional polling units and they can’t conduct the election with a register that is not updated so that some people will not be disenfranchised,” Kolawole said as he directed the Leader of the House, Ajibayo Adeyeye to liaise with the House Committee on Judiciary and meet with the executive arm of the state government so as to come up with a law that will enable the House a position pending when election into councils would hold.