Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission says it has cancelled the nomination fee deposit for Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates in the forthcoming Local Government election in the state for all political parties.
OGSIEC’s chairman, Mr Babatunde Osibodu, made the disclosure while fielding questions from journalists in Abeokuta.
He said the electoral body had in the guidelines released earlier, stipulated the payment of non-refundable deposit of N200,000 and N100,000 by intending candidates nominated and cleared to contest the Chairmanship and Councillorship elections respectively in the council poll.
He said, “You will recall that we had earlier asked male Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates to make a non-refundable deposit of N200,000 and N100,000 respectively.
“The Commission was, however, inundated with calls for the cancellation based on a particular court judgment. We did promise that we will revert our decision if any of the political parties was able to provide the said judgment; unfortunately, none of them was able to come up with the judgement until recently.
“We took it upon ourselves after the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria strike was called off to request a copy of the judgement from the Chief Registrar of the Ogun State High Court.
“We have now received a Certified True Copy of the judgement in the case of the National Conscience Party of Nigeria and others, versus OGSIEC and Attorney- General of Ogun State as delivered in May 2004 by Hon. Justice G.O Soremi to the effect that Sections 14,15 and 16 of the Ogun State Electoral Law of 2007 contravene Section 7 (4), 106 and 107 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended). Consequently, the Commission has decided to cancel payment of nomination fees as earlier announced.”
Osibodu explained that the Commission has not collected money from any of the political parties or candidate prior to this latest decision.
He, however, reiterated the electoral body’s resolve to be neutral, fair, impartial, even-handed and transparent in the conduct of the election, adding that OGSIEC would work within the ambit of the law.
“The cancellation of nomination fee deposit is an evidence of its (OGSIEC’s)submission to the law and good conscience.”
Talking about security, he said the Commission has scaled up preparation and synergy with the various security agencies to ensure that the exercise is peaceful across the State, assuring voters of violence-free council poll come 24th July, 2021.
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