In a bid to avoid norms of election delays, Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) has reached the final ladder determined to perfect its own side, with the strategic preparation for the Saturday July 12 elections into Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) election in the state.
This was revealed in the afternoon of Thursday by the Commission’s Chairman, Justice Bola Okikiolu-Ighile (rtd) at a world press briefing ahead of the election on Saturday July 12.
According to the Chairman, the Commission is fully ready to distribute sensitive and non-sensitive materials across the state.
“We are to keep to that time of 8:00 am to 3:00 pm” Okikiolu-Ighile maintained as she stated that opportunity has come for the electorates to elect the candidates of their choice into the chairmanship seats across the 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas.
Okikiolu-Ighile said: “We have engaged with the civil society organisations, security agencies, the media, the youth, market leaders, religious bodies, Persons With Disabilities (PWD), and other key stakeholders through consultations, meetings and advocacy to promote inclusivity and transparency at the beginning of this exercise,” she said.
Justice Okikiolu-Ighile urged the electorates not to trade or sell their votes as their votes is their power.
She encouraged electorate to move out of their comfort zone and cast their votes to elect their leaders in the local community level. “Go out to cast your votes to choose your leaders, to choose your representatives at the local community levels as part of the order and transfer of power in a democratic manner.
The LASIEC Chairman revealed that election would be held from 20 local government areas and 37 local community development areas, making total “57 Chairmanship positions to be contested for as well as vice chairmanship positions,” she said.
The RTD Justice further announce that: “we have 76 councillorship positions being contested for in the election to be held in all the 13,025 20 units across the state.
She said: “19 political parties registered for the election, whereas only 15 would take part in the election. “The commission has been engaging with political parties.”
On the issue of security, apart from 31,000 Nigeria Police Force selected for the election assignment, the LASIEC chairman also said that the Commission has mobilized other security agents, including Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, DSS, and others to cover the elections
The Commission, she said, has also made preparations to give preference for pregnant women, disabled persons and the aged in the society.
She emphasised that security personnel have been mobilized to adequately support disabled persons to cast their votes.
According to her, the commission’s personnel have been duly educated on how to handle the election and they were well trained for the job
Furthermore, Justice Ighile (rtd) reiterated that nothing would change the collation of the results, saying that the votes would be counted and announced at the ward levels.
She said that the mandate given to the Commission is to conduct the election between the 8:00 am and 3:00 pm on Saturday.
LASIEC Chairman was accompany by other official of the commission to the venue including electoral commissioner Samson Ajibade. It will be recalled that the Commission’s Chairman assumed office on January 10 and had a meeting with party officials on January 13, 2025.