Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says they are going to hire at least 138,000 vehicles, over 4,000 boats and over 8,000 motorcycles for the 2023 general elections.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja.
He said the commission has contract with individual drivers and will sign individual contract with all the persons who are going to provide vehicles for the commission.
He said that they will involve the National Union of Road Transport Workers( NURTW), to assist the commission to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with commission and the drivers to be engaged for election duty.
Okoye was reacting to the controversies on plan by INEC to engage Lagos Park Management Committee under MC Oluomo leadership for transportation of election materials and personnel in the forthcoming elections in the state.
He explained that its contract for logistics delivery for the forthcoming general elections in Lagos State is with individual drivers and not with Musiliu Akinsanya, aka MC Oluomo.
He urged Nigerians to stop linking INEC with an individual, saying the commission’s commitment was to the individual drivers.
“This commission has contract with individual drivers. The National Union of Road Transport Workers has no vehicles. So, we signed individual contract with all the persons who are going to provide vehicles for us.
“For this election, we are going to hire at least 138,000 vehicles. We are going to hire over 4,000 boats and we are going to hire over 8,000 motorcycles.
“We are going to sign individual contract with all these people. The only thing the road transport union workers does for us is that we have what we call a Memorandum of Understanding with them, so that if for instance any of the members goes AWOL, they will help us track the person down.
“If somebody does not report on time, they will help us find out why the person has not reported on time. But our contract is with individual drivers,” he said.
“The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State has never said that we are going to work with individual you have mentioned.
“What he said was that if there’s no NURTW in Lagos, but Park Management Committee, that we are going to work with the committee, because we cannot be seen to be breaking the law.
“So, that is the issue. People should banish this whole idea of linking the commission to an individual.
“Our commitment is to individual drivers we are going to sign a contract with and we are also going to take oath of neutrality and oath of allegiance to the commission, and that is where we stand on the matter,” Okiye said.
Several individual and groups, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have raised concern on the use of the Park Management Committee in Lagos by INEC.