By Henry Odeh
Following the protracted face off and the lingering out of court negotiations between the Oyo state government and the embattled Association Of Local Government Of Nigeria (ALGON), more revelations have emerged showing that the sacked chairmen never procured the statutory Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) form for the purported 2018 local government election in Oyo state.
A source at the office of the Oyo State Governor who preferred to remain anonymous told Sunrise Bulletin on Tuesday that the move by the embattled ALGON members to blackmail the state government under the leadership of governor Seyi Makinde as a tool to garner public sympathy was a wrong calculation.
The source revealed that recent documents received by the state government from Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) indicated that OYSIEC made available for political parties INEC nomination forms for local government counselors and chairmen at the rate of N100,000 (One hundred thousand) and N150,000 (One hundred and fifty thousand) respectively.
Further revelations from political parties candidate nomination forms obtained from OYSIEC by the state government and evidence of form procurement for the 2018 council poll revealed that the sacked chairmen failed to fulfill one of the fundamental requirements to qualify for participation in the said election in the first place.
The source further noted that Section 10 (e) of state Independent Electoral Law states that “A person shall be qualified for election under this law if he makes to the electoral commission payment of a nonrefundable sum proscribed for the post he intends to contest by the electoral commission” to which the commission advertised in various mass medium.
It was further gathered that non of the embattled ALGON chairmen acted in fulfilment of section 10(e) of the state independent electoral law which made it a statutory requirement for qualification before contesting the said council election by failing to pay the required fee of N100,000 and N150,000 for counselorship and chairmanship nomination forms respectively as proscribed by the commission.
Sunrise Bulletin further gathered that the commission does not have any record or evidence of payment by way of bank teller or receipt of the proscribed fee by the embattled chairmen.
The protracted negotiation going on between Oyo state government and the sacked chairmen is yet to attain a definite lasting resolution but with the unfolding developments, it is expected that both parties will be more firm and resolute in presenting a more realistic proposition that will end in a win win situation at the negotiation table.
