The new Osun REC, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola
By Banji Ayoola
The new Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Osun State, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Babalola, will assume duties at the commission’s state headquarters in Osogbo, the state capital, on Monday, The Radiance has gathered.
Mrs Babalola, until her latest posting the Ondo State REC, replaces Barrister Mutiu Agboke, who swapped duty posts with her.
The Radiance learnt that Agboke will also assume duties on Monday as the new Ondo REC at INEC headquarters, at Alagbaka, in Akure, the state capital, to replace Mrs Babalola.
Agboke’s properties were moved on Friday from Osogbo to the REC quarters at Alagbaka in Akure, preparatory to his expected assumption of duties on Monday as Ondo State new INEC boss.
Osun State new REC will assume duties together with a new Head of Department, HOD, in charge of Information and Communication Technology, ICT, Mrs Kemi Ajila, who, equally was transferred from her former beat in Ondo State INEC head office, two weeks ago.
Like the new Osun REC, Mrs Ajila, the new Osun INEC HOD, ICT, was also moved from Ondo State INEC headquarters, where she was serving in the same capacity until her latest deployment.
The HOD ICT is in charge of BVAS, the crucial electronic device used for calculating voting figures transmitted online from polling booths statewide to state INEC headquarters.
Osun State new REC, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, a lawyer, and the immediate former Ondo State REC, assumed office as Ondo State REC on December 18, 2023.
She was an INEC staff, serving as a director in the commission’s Legal Department in Abuja before she was given a political appointment during the immediate former INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakub’s tenure, as REC Ondo State.
According to sources, “Mrs Babalola is a very firm and hard-working woman. She handles even all the administrative activities including staff audit, intra state transfers, projects such as building projects, and restructuring of office environment.
“She doesn’t tolerate lateness or idleness. Mostly at the state office, the staff respect her handling of official activities despite her gender.
“She can be very harsh even with her HODs when things are not going as she expects.
*It was during her tenure as Ondo REC that monthly imprest from the state government meant for Local governments INEC staff started trickling down to the most junior local government staff. Before her, these were usually shared among only the commussion’s first four foremost staff at the local governments.”
Already in Osun State, there are agitations over the sudden redeployment of the state REC barely four months to the August 15 Governorship election.
For instance the coalition of Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, which protested the sudden changes, criticised the redeployment close to an election as untidy and suspicious moves by the All Progressives Congress, the ruling party at the national level, but an opposition party in Osun State, and the Federal Government allegedly to compromise the election.
But the new Osun REC, Mrs Babalola has been described as a woman who could not be easily compromised, or bought over by politicians or the government as regards the conduct of free, fair and credible elections.
According to sources: “Elections have procedures. For anybody to be simply bought over will be too glaring and nearly impossible, based on the fact that elections take place at the polling units.
“And that is where some unscrupulous politicians engage in votes buying. So rigging an election when collation of results starts from polling units and are being uploaded to the online INEC server where the public can easily access the results, will be difficult.
*So the issue of being bought over by politicians or the government to rig elections is out of the question, not possible.
“However, it is possible that some politicians may believe that giving money to senior INEC officials can influence the results of elections.
“The process of elections cannot be compromised. Even though rumours have it that Mrs Babalola rapports with APC politicians, these rumours cannot be verified.”
Nevertheless, The Radiance probed further:
“These questions arise because there are agitations in Osun that a new REC is being brought to rig the August 15 Governorship election in favour of the APC.
“And more so confidence has been expressed virtually in all quarters of Osun State that Agboke is likely to be difficult to compromise, or bend.
“Do you think that Osun new REC, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola could be easily compromised?”
The source replied:
“I don’t think so because she would not want to foul any election procedure.
“Mrs Babalola has conducted bye elections into two Akoko Local Governments in Ondo State. She also conducted the 2024 Governorship election won by the incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
“INEC staff generally see her as a very competent election handler.
“There were no complaints from INEC staff against the elections she conducted. This is even evident from the outcome of the litigations, the court verdicts on the cases. She is very frugal.”
Agboke, who is returning to his former beat, was formerly Ondo State REC for six months, during which the state INEC staff had a cordial relationship with him.
However, the local government INEC staff were said to be at the scary end due to his allegedly usual unscheduled visits to lNEC local government offices.
Sources said, “But on the average, we considered him a good person from the staff perspective.
“Administratively, he is good especially at the periods when they conducted promotion exams for staff. He ensured that every staff member who participated in the promotion exams scaled through.
“However he did not conduct any election while he was here in those six months. So we could not assess how competent he is in conducting fair, free and credible elections. Ondo was the first office he would serve as REC.
“The random assessment I can give is that he is very friendly with staff. He doesn’t joke with absenteeism.”
