The management of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), has revealed that only registered students for the 2022/2023 academic session would be allowed to vote in the forthcoming Students’ Union election.
According to the management, only students who had paid their school fees for the 2022/2023 session are eligible electorates to vote on May 4, 2023.
The Varsity’s Students’ Union Electoral Committee (SUEC) Chairman, Professor Olukayode Afolabi, disclosed this while giving his closing remark today at the just concluded SU election debate and manifesto.
He noted that the mandate is an order directly made by the management.
In his words: “You can only vote when you are a student of AAUA and that is when you have paid your school fees.
“For those who have not paid for the 2022/2023 academic session and love the contestants and wish to vote, you can still pay and there is time for you to pay.”
Speaking further, he stated that aspirants and their agents must be fully accredited before proceeding to the venue of the election.
“If aspirants and agents are not accredited, they must not approach the election venue. If you are not accredited, don’t come to the election center at all”, he said.
However, Prof Afolabi assured that the forthcoming SU election would be free and fair, adding that neither the management nor the state governor has any preferred candidate.
He stated: “Management has not told me they have a candidate, and the management has not given me any. It is an electronic voting process and it is going to be a free and fair election.”
He also warned that immediately after the manifesto, no aspirants must be found doing any public campaigns, as the manifesto exercise ends open and public campaigning.
To ease the stress that voters go through during the election, he noted that voters will stay inside Olusegun Obasanjo Multipurpose Hall (OBJ) and then be moved to Information and Communication Technology Application Centre (ICTAC) to cast their votes.
In his remark, the outgoing SU president, Olumide Ogunsanmi, politically known as Multiple charged the aspirants to prepare to take up the mantle ofthe office they have chosen to work for.
He urged the students not to vote for candidates they do not believe in.
Meanwhile, the election debate and manifesto which was held at the school’s Old Relaxation Centre (RC) was organized by the Students’ Union Electoral Committee and Nigerian Union of Campus Journalists (NUCJ), AAUA chapter, with the support of the management.
Author
Agbelusi Samuel is a campus journalist, writer, red carpet host, political and sport analyst. A political science student that covers news and politics beats for AAUA INSIDER.