INEC will protect the mandate of Osun voters in 2026 governorship election –INEC REC, Agboke

INEC will protect the mandate of Osun voters in 2026 governorship election –INEC REC, AgbokINEC will protect the mandate of Osun voters in 2026 governorship election –INEC REC, Agboke

Barr Mutiu Olaleke Agboke is the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Election Commission (INEC), Osun State, In this interview with Standard Times Nigeria Newspaper team led by the Editor-in-Chief, Ayo Fadimu and Osun State Correspondent, Opeyemi Abolarinwa. He spoke about the preparedness of the election umpire to conduct, free, fair and trasparent election next year in the State. Excerpts

Next year is Election in Osun State. How prepared is INEC?

The Commission preparation for Election is always predicated on the conclusion of the previous election. In order words, when we end an election, the day we conclude that one, the next day, we start the preparation for the next one. So, off-season is one of the critical elections that the Commission doesn’t take lightly.

Don’t forget that last year or early this year, we had elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states, and of course this year, we are going to have in Anambra , Ekiti and of course, Osun is the last Election to the general election, so that preparation has been on from the conclusion of the one off-cycle election to the other, and for you to see the cycle of the preparation, the commission has released the time table and of course, the notice of the Election will be out by 13th of August, so the preparation has started and our eyes are on the go.

The voter’s registration and the continuous voter’s registration are also part of the system, and from experience, we normally know that in some states, some of these cards are being hoarded, either by the politicians in collaboration with some of your staff here, I’m not taking of Osun State in particular, but some states which we have been hearing about.

How are you prepared for such skirmishes in Osun State?

You see, there are regulations, there are guidelines for the continuous voters registration. We have not reached the level of collections of the PVCs but like you said, to hoard, to transfer, to confiscate, to do any short of shenanigans with the PVC is a very criminal offence and it is against the regulations that guide the process.

For us in Osun State, what we do is to ensure we train and retrain our staff to be able to understand the mandate required of them in terms of registration exercise. And what is the mandate? Carry out the exercise, don’t collect money from people, give people their Permanent Voters’ Card if they are available, do not in anyway sell the card, keep the card either for or on behalf of any politician, if you do, you will be in for it. So this is the kind of orientation we have been given to them and so far so good.

For me, I got here in 2022 and I’ve conducted one election here. None of my staff was found culpable in that regard and I can tell you that they are very cautious because I have been telling them, our slogan here is “Do any electoral offence, you go to jail” and nobody is ready to go to jail. So that is still there, and we continue to to sing it to their consciousness, so that all of us will know that at the end of the day, we’ll be on the same page, and will achieve the same result.

The monitoring of political party activities, you will see one today is in this faction and another day he’s in another, how close and conversant are you with the political actors and what is the relationship between INEC and political actors in the state?

NEC has no business with political actors. For Politicians, it is their game. We don’t venture into how they do their games. But INEC has business with political parties. Political parties that we have in Nigeria are 19 and I think it is 18 we have in Osun State, so those 18, you have your choice.

Our relationship with the political parties are intact, particularly, with IPAC. That’s their umbrella body, Inter Party Advisory Council, we engage them, we relate with them, I’ve never had issues with them since I came because we carry them along.

At intervals, we organise stakeholders meeting here at least in a quarterly, we have stakeholders meeting, they know what we are doing, they also know what we require from them, they know what we don’t want them to do.

For now, they comply and of course, politicians want to be politicians, once they come with what we don’t want, I don’t take it from them because I have told them where I stand, where I stand is where the law stands, where the people stand and that is our mandate.

On a personal level, I’ve known you for a long time as an uncompromising person but we all saw what happened in 2018 election in Osun State and it cast doubt on the ability of INEC to conduct this off-cycle election in Osun State. How can you reassure the people of Osun that next year, their votes will count?

You see, when I talk to people, I tell them that INEC is just one person among the organisers of the election. Yes, we are the centre of the activity, but it’s not only INEC that will make it successful. There are other stakeholders, even you as a journalist, as you are here, what you are doing is part of the process that will ensure that we have achieve success. You know, Journalists, CSO, some CSO just left my office. I’ve engaged them for more than two – three hours here.

The security agents, all of us,  but if INEC is on a particular page and all these other stakeholders I’m talking about are on different page,  then, we can’t achieve the same result. So for me, we have an oath that we sworn to,  we have a mandate to ensure that we conduct a free,  fair process and that mandate can only be actualized with the support of the electorates.

Once the electorates do their own paths, ours is to protect the process. I can assure you, we will protect the mandate of the people. We will ensure that once they vote, once they cast their votes, they cast their ballots, they should be rest assured that their votes will count in the direction they vote, they will see the result because it is one thing to vote and see the result elsewhere, so, we are saying with the support of major stakeholders.

We will do our best. You know, nobody is an angel, but we are saying we will use our Omoluabi (good manner) to do the right thing appropriately, and that is what we are promising.

We have 18 political parties in Osun State, though in Nigeria, we have 19 but in Osun State, we have 18, the only one that is not here is the Young party.

You mean Young People’s Party YPP?

No, Young party. because it was the order of the Court.

Lastly, sir, what has been your experience so far as Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC because I know you as a Lawyer?

(Laughs) Yes I’m still a lawyer, but my experience (as INEC REC) is not publishable but the important thing is that with the support of God Almighty, we try as much as possible not to allow what we want to eat destroy by what we want to be.