BREAKING: Court bars INEC from using MC Oluomo to distribute election materials

The plans by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to engage the services of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee led by Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, to move some electoral materials in the forthcoming elections have been aborted.

This is because a federal high court in Lagos on Monday ruled that the committee should not be involved in the distribution of election materials and ad-hoc staff in the state.

Presiding judge, Chukwujekwu Aneke, gave the order in a suit filed by the Labour Party.

There has been a controversy over the decision of the INEC to work with the parks management committee to distribute election materials.

Lagos State Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had set up the parks committee after banning the operations of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).

Olusegun Agbaje, INEC resident electoral commissioner (REC) in Lagos, said he had no option other than to work with the parks committee to distribute election materials in the state – a decision which has been greeted with criticism as regards the credibility of the polls since MC Oluomo is a supporter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

But Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner for information, said the logistics contract for the distribution of election materials is with drivers and not transport unions.

The Labour Party and five other plaintiffs had gone to court to seek an interlocutory injunction restraining INEC, “whether by itself or by its officers, affiliates, servants, privies or agents or any person acting or purporting to act for and on behalf howsoever from taking any steps or further steps whatsoever in furtherance of the engagement or appointment or consummating the appointment of Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo led Lagos State Parks Management Committee or any of its commercial bus drivers to distribute 2023 election materials and personnel in Lagos State pending the hearing and determination the substantive suit”.

In the ruling, the judge restrained INEC from taking any steps or further steps whatsoever in furtherance of the engagement of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee led by MC Oluomo pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.