7 October 2008
Lagos — HUNDEREDS of women including worshippers of Yoruba god of thunder, Sango, yesterday stormed the Ekiti State House of Assembly over continued delay in the screening of members of the state Independent Electoral Commission (EKSIEC) by the legislature.
The protesters under the aegis of Concerned Ekiti Women also threatened to place a curse on the state lawmakers on Friday it they refuse to screen the nominees.
Spokesperson for the protesters, Mr. Momisola Ogunjemilua, who issued the threat at Ado-Ekiti in an interview with newsmen, said the women would protest the delay naked on Friday if their demand was ignored.
Daily Champion recalls that the inability of the assembly to screen the nominees had stalled the conduct of the local government election in the state earlier scheduled for July 19 and later August 2, 2008.
Delay in the screening of the SIEC nominees, despite passage of the bill establishing the commission angered the women, who demanded screening of the SIEC members and a date for council poll.
The women, drawn from all the 16 local government areas of the state, said the protest became imperative due to the pervasive sufferings in the land as a result of the delay in the conduct of the election.
The irate women, who all dressed in white as a mark of coming to the Assembly with good intention, said that the local government was the closest government to them, which could attend to their problems quickly before the state government
They said that the caretaker committees running the affairs of the councils have no allegiance to the people and were not accountable to the people because they were not elected into the office.
Speaking with newsmen at the Assembly premises, Mrs. Ogunjemilua, one of the leaders of the protesters, condemned the delay. She said the legislators were just playing politics with the lives of the people of the state by delaying the council election.
She, however, threatened that they would stage a comeback if the lawmakers failed to fulfill their promise this week. She said that they would wear black attire and some of them would be half naked which, she said, would spell bad omen for the legislators.
Among the women were Sango worshipers, who were in their full regalia. A bag of salt (sodium chloride) was sprinkled at the parking lot of the lawmakers, which some people said may have spiritual implications.
While trying to placate the visibly angry women, the Speaker of the House, Tunji Odeyemi, promised that the names of the approved nominees and date of the council election would be announced on or before Friday all things being equal.
He said that the passage of the bill was delayed by series of court injunctions instituted by some individual members of the public and National Conscience Party(NCP).
Odeyemi, who said that the bill had earlier been passed and April fixed for the election before it was truncated by the court injunction, added. He said that after consulting with the legal department of the House, the passage of the bill would be concluded this week.
A member of the House, Bisi Kolawole, representing Efon Constituency, assured that the House has no reason to disappoint the women, stating that the nominees have been screened and approved by the ad hoc committee.
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