Labour Party Had No Capacity To Deploy Agents In Every Polling Unit In Lagos State —Orekoya.
Lucky Akra
Abiodun Orekoya is the winner of last Saturday’s State House of Assembly election for Shomolu constituency 01. He spoke to journalists on various allegations by the Labour Party candidate in Shomolu in the heat of the election which heralded his and his party’s electoral victory._
Excerpts…
On how he would describe the election exercise in Shomolu;_
“The process is fair, though not perfect. There’s always room for improvement. We’ve had unbroken democracy since 1999, that’s a good record for our nation. We should not truncate it now.”
On the harassment of Labour Party supporters and PU agents by APC members in Shomolu;_
“Where? We’re at a Polling Unit now, can you see anyone beating any Polling agent? Look, this is their problem; they don’t have sufficient agents to cover every Polling Unit in Shomolu. That is their real problem. The last election (presidential) in which Labour Party claimed victory was all as a result of the protest votes by our people who were angry. I can assure you that they can’t get such today. They don’t have the capacity to deploy agents to every Polling Units in Shomolu. There are over 13,000 Polling Units in Lagos State. Where are they going to get the resources to deploy agents in all of them? They can’t! Even here now, there are no Policemen. The Police doesn’t even have enough men to police every centre.”
On the allegation by the Labour Party candidate for the state House of Assembly in Shomolu constituency 01, that APC supporters used canes to chase away Labour Party voters and agents in Shomolu;_
“Tell him to show you the people and where such happened. They’re just looking for excuses because they know they will fail. It is not correct. This is not the first or second time they will fail in election in this Shomolu. The Labour Party candidate is preparing excuses for his failure, so that when he now fails, he will have an excuse to tender.”
On how he would rate the voting exercise in Shomolu so far?_
“Well, very fair, fair because there are still some hitches. For example, I have a Polling Unit here that up till now, they have not started voting because the BVAS machines are not working. In the Polling Unit where I voted, we had a delay of about one hour because they didn’t have stamp pads. These are very minor things that shouldn’t delay elections. And I’ve already told them, you can’t stop people from voting at 2.30pm. You must allow those already on que to complete the exercise.”
On whether he is sure of winning the election?
“I am too confident. I’m winning and my governor is winning as well. They (opposition) are not in the race. They know they are not in the race, that’s why they are looking for excuses. You want to tell me that the PDP candidate that scored votes on this street in the last election will win? The results are there.”
On the fact that the Labour Party won Shomolu in the last presidential election;_
“That is what I’m saying. There were protest votes from our children. Then the Christian community also voted against our Muslim – Muslim ticket. That’s what happened.”
On what he has in store for the people of Shomolu if he wins;_
“I have said this over and over again. I said the focal point of my duty here as a legislator shall be the youth. Since about eight or nine months ago, I’ve been telling our youths that I want to engage them. I said I will establish a quarterly youth assembly where I will sit down and dialogue with them. There are basic things we need to teach them which they didn’t learn in school. The issue of End-sars opened my mind to the fact that we are too far from them. There’s a big gap. I think that has to do with the History subject that was removed from our school curriculum. It has a big effect on them. They don’t know about past serious issues in Nigerian polity. They don’t know about Abiola, neither do they know anything about Awolowo or Nnamdi Azikiwe or our northern leaders, Ahmadu Bello and co. That’s why social media is teaching them nonsense.And that is the major area I want to focus on, because whether we like it or not, they are our tomorrow. If we don’t prepare them, then our future is doomed. Whether we like it or not, we are going to leave the stage. If we don’t leave, then nature will take us away. So these people that will eventually take over from us must be prepared for the task.”
