INEC Denies Entering Contract Directly With Tinubu’s Loyalist, MC Oluomo To Distribute Election Materials

The issue has generated controversy because MC Oluomo is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and ally of the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it did not enter into any contract with the National Union of Road Transport Workers or another transport union in Lagos to transport materials on Election Day.

Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, said this on Thursday in reaction to reports that the electoral commission had contracted the movement of materials on Election Day to the Lagos State Parks Management Committee led by Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo.

The issue has generated controversy because MC Oluomo is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and ally of the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

It was reported that INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Olusegun Agbaje, while responding to questions about the MC Oluomo-led committee’s engagement during the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting at the INEC office on Tuesday, in Lagos confirmed that the commission would use MC Oluomo-led committee despite rejection and protests by Nigerians.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), civil societies and groups have rejected the planned INEC’s collaboration with MC Oluomo-led parks management committee, and called on INEC to shelve the plan since MC Oluomo is partisan and a staunch supporter of Tinubu.

“There is a ban on the NURTW and RTEAN, we are only left with the Park Management system and NARTO (National Association of Road Transport Owners) and we are already working with NARTO.

“NARTO is not even able to meet up with 40 per cent of our vehicle requirements for this election. The commission in Lagos State does not have any option than to use the park management system.

“We are not dealing with Oluomo, we are dealing with the park managers. Individual people that have vehicles are those we are going to use,” Agbaje had said.

“So, it will be against the law if INEC has to continue to work with NURTW or any other group that is proscribed in the state.”

But reacting to the controversy while featuring on a Channels Television’s programme, Okoye said the commission does not enter into contracts with unions but rather individual vehicle owners.

Okoye said for the 2023 general elections, INEC will “hire at least 138,000 vehicles and we have hired vehicles in the past”.

“This Commission is going to hire at least 4,000 boats; we have hired boats in the past, and this Commission will hire at least 88,000 motorcycles,” he said.

Stressing that the Commission enters into contracts with individual vehicle owners and not unions, he said, “Now, the Commission enters into individual contracts with the vehicle owners; we don’t enter into any form of contract with the union.

“What we have with the National Union of Road Transport Workers and with the National Association of Road Transport Owners and the Marine Union is what we call a Memorandum of Understanding.

“We don’t enter into a contract with them. So, the issue of the name of an individual being mentioned to the effect that the individual is going to provide all the vehicles that the commission needs or for the purposes of this election is just mischievous.”

According to him, INEC signs memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with transport unions to ensure accountability in case a driver belonging to such a union absconds or fails to show up for the job.