Kunle Adelabu
-It’s our duty to ensure residents’ unhindered access – Hon. Agunbiade
The issue of challenges being faced by residents all – over the Ikorodu Division, which is made up of the old Ikorodu Local Government and five Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), to access the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Ikorodu for registration and collection of the Permanent Voters Card (PVC), has, again, been brought to the front burner for discussion as residents called for quick action.
Many have been complaining over the years about the inaccessibility of the INEC office located within the Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Ikorodu with political office holders and the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), promising to open up the office to the TOS Benson Avenue to stop people’s harrowing experiences but nothing has been done since then.
However, the matter came up again for discussion at the 8th Annual Constituency Stakeholders’ Meeting organized by the State Assembly, which was held at the 700 Seater Auditorium, Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH), on Thursday, June 30, 2022.
The issue was again raised by Alhaji Luqman Shonibare, Chairman, Community Development Committee (CDC), who was the first to speak during the interactive session at the stakeholders’ meeting last week.
He had raised issue on the distance and difficulties involved in getting to the INEC office and charged the representative of the Ikorodu Constituency I to see to it that the office is moved to a more accessible location.
His submission received massive support from over 1000 stakeholders that attended the meeting.
Another resident, Aregbesola, who spoke with THE IMPACT at meeting, said that the present location of the INEC office is a major hindrance to registration.
“Just imagine when the office was at the old secretariat at Ita – Elewa opposite the Post Office, we used to have unhindered access and that was encouraging compare to when we now have to labour and toil while trying to get into the GRA and do whatever we want to do”, he said.
Like Alhaji Shonibare, he too called for relocation of the office.
While some were of the view that the office should be relocated to somewhere within the town, many others were of the view that the office should remain where it is but an access should be created to link it from the TOS Benson Avenue for people to access the office directly instead of coming in through the GRA gate.
Mrs Olutoyin Olafeso, the official who represented the Ikorodu INEC Resident Officer, in her response to the call for the relocation of the office, charged the community to take up the matter with INEC national body.
“The INEC office has been there and not a new office and if we have to move the office, it must be a collective effort of the community. The present office was built by the Commission”, she said.
‘It is the duty of the community to provide land and be ready to construct the office”, she said.
The Majority Leader, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade, speaking on the matter, agreed with the INEC official that it is the responsibility of the community, especially that of the elected office holders and other stakeholders to ensure that residents have unhindered access to the INEC office.
He, however, said that efforts are on to create alternative access to the office while adding that the concern of the residents will also be presented to the appropriate quarters for action.
“It is our responsibility as a community to ensure that the INEC is located where people can access it unhindered and I can confirm to you that we are already on the issue”, Hon. Agunbiade.
“Amongst what we discussed here today is the peculiarity of the INEC office in Ikorodu and we are going to get it to appropriate quarters so that, Council Chairmen in Ikorodu and other elected office holders can meet to discuss further on how we are to finally resolve the issue of how we can create an access road to link the INEC office”, he added.
Meanwhile, the fourth term lawmaker has suggested temporary arrangements to ease the difficulties residents are facing in accessing the INEC office and shortage of staff.
Hon. Agunbiade charged INEC to consider the possibility of making use of a temporary office within the Ikorodu Local Government Secretariat for the purpose of PVC registration and collections, while also pledging that the Ikorodu community will be ready to provide them with people who are going to be paid by the community to cover for their staff shortage.
“For the special purpose of registration and collection of PVC cards, can we have an arrangement to improvise an office space within the Ikorodu LG Secretariat”, the lawmaker suggested.
“Let’s see how INEC and Ikorodu can achieve improvisation of office space so that more people, especially old men and women that are eager to register and collect their PVCs can do so.
“The other time, you (INEC official) also said that you don’t have enough manpower to handle cases, we can also provide personnel that will assist you which we are going to pay for. Through this, we can strengthen your staff strength.
“You can assign these personnel to handle none sensitive assignments”, he added.
