Ajimobi charges INEC on efficiency and transparency

Governor Ajimobi- Oyo State

Oyo State Governor Senator Abiola Ajimobi has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to continually improve its operation by making it system driven rather than human-driven to forestall electoral malpractices in the country as well as improve the confidence level.


The Governor gave the charge while receiving the Oyo state resident electoral commissioner Barrister Mutiu Agboke and top INEC officials who paid him a courtesy call at the Governor’s office Secretariat, Agodi Ibadan.

Governor Ajimobi who rated the confidence of the public in INEC at about 60 per cent called on the electoral umpire to raise the bar and ensure electoral transparency in the state. He said voting should not be an excruciating experience but an easy process that should not attract hardship to the people.

Ajimobi said, “There is nowhere in the world that human being will not behave like human beings, that they will not want to cheat, that they will not want to rig, I think INEC system should continually be improved to make it a system driven exercise and organization, rather than individual driven. 

“The moment you put in place checks and balances in terms of electronic devices, workability and such others, I think the more people will believe in INEC. As at today, the confidence level in INEC is about 60 per cent while the confidence level of the people in government and governance is about 30 per cent, which means INEC is doing better than the government.

But let us increase that level and the only way is to continue to make it system driven and make it as transparent as much as we can.” While speaking on the issuance of PVC, Governor Ajimobi noted that he has been inundated with complaints from members of the public as regards the slow pace, long queues and other challenges confronting the commission.

The Governor also stressed the need for the commission to engage more ad hoc staff that would expedite the process while assuring the commission of the government support in the areas of sensitization and mobilization, noting that the state government is already considering working out a mechanism that would allow workers take time off duty to go and register as well as collect their PVCs to reduce the volume of uncollected PVCs.

“We already planned to make the last week of the registration a time off or giving some days off for our people to leave work to go and collect their PVCs. I don’t think there should be a work-free day for that, but we can work out allowing them to go in the morning and then report back to work. We could say, we will allow them to resume work at 8 am then we give them so hours off to go there and collect till 12noon and then come back to work. 

“We could do that three times a week or even a whole week just to ensure that people registered and collect their PVCs. And when we give people that excuse from duty, they must also come back with their PVCs and we will want to see many of them register and those who have not collected it to do so too”, the governor said.

In his earlier remark, the Oyo INEC boss, Barrister Agboke said about 756,450 PVC are yet to be collected in Oyo state, appealing to the state government to encourage the civil and public servants in the state by setting a day apart for the collection of PVC through a public holiday.