8th June, 2010
The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) on Monday announced plans to create additional wards and polling units.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state at present has 245 federal wards with 8,745 polling units.
Addressing stakeholders on the delineation of wards and creation of additional polling units, the LASIEC Chairman, retired Justice Afolabi Adeyinka, said that the Constitution empowered the commission to do so.
However, the Lagos State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Setonji Koshedo, criticised the plan, saying that the commission was not empowered constitutionally to create additional wards and polling units.
Adeyinka explained that the LASIEC Law of 2008 and Section 3 of the Local Government (administration) Law of 1999 empowered LASIEC to create wards and polling units.
He said the move was in response to requests by various communities in the state for the delineation of wards and the creation of more polling units.
The retired judge advised stakeholders that had yet to submit their memoranda on the planned exercise to do so on or before June 14.
“After that, the commission will begin a tour of the 57 Local Government Areas with a view to interacting with the people and determining where the polling units will be located and where new wards should be carved out from,†he added.
While declaring the forum open, Gov. Babatunde Fashola had commended the initiative of LASIEC and said that the delineation of wards and creation of polling units would create fair and credible representation at the grassroots level.