Following the rescheduling of the presidential and National Assembly elections, The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and others are working towards peaceful polls, report Sani Muh’d Sani, Sunny Nwankwo, Rasaq Ibrahim, Kolade Adeyemi, Osagie Otabor, Okungbowa Aiwerie , Bisi Olaniyi and Vincent Ikuomola
INEC warns politicians to
be cautious of utterances
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has advised politicians not heat up the polity.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu spoke yesterday while giving update on INEC’s preparation. He assured Nigerians and international community that the commission would ensure free and fair polls on Saturday.
He said: “While we fully understand the disappointment and even anger that followed that rescheduling of the elections on 16th February, I wish to appeal to stakeholders to be more dispassionate and circumspect in their comments in order not to overheat the polity.”
Yakubu also debunked the report that one of the National Commissioners was invited by the Department of State Security (DSS).
He said: “No commissioner of the commission was picked up by any security agency, no house of any commissioner of INEC was raided, no commissioner of INEC has been picked up by security agencies.
“The particular commissioner you are referring to that was mentioned in the social media is as we speak in his office in the commission. No six directors were picked up by any security agencies.”
Yakubu added: “All decisions of the commission are taken by the commission as an independent constitutional body and we will continue to protect and jealously guide our independence”.
Also reacting to the punishment for ballot box snatchers, the INEC boss said the commission would stand by the law which has stipulated some measures of punishment for would be offenders.
“The position of the commission is that all violators of Electoral Acts should be punished according to the provisions of the Electoral Act,” he said.
The Act stipulates two years jail term for any offender.
He said all the electoral materials have been successfully deployed to the states.
He also revealed that 95% of the Smart Cars Readers have been configured ahead of the scheduled time.
Yakubu further assured that the remaining 5% would be concluded by Wednesday.
He also said it was not true that one of the suppliers of the Smart Cars Readers was involved in the configuration process; stressing that the configuration was done entirely by the staff of the commission.
The INEC boss also said the commission has not received any complaints of missing result sheets.
According to him: “The commission is unaware that any of our result sheets have gone into the wrongs hands, yes we agreed that we deployed on Saturday but we recalled the sensitive materials and returned them to the vault of Central Bank.”
He went on: “To ensure the integrity of the process and the audit that I promised stakeholders on Saturday, we dedicated today in all the states of the federation to confirmation and verification of the materials returned to the Central Bank by political parties and other stakeholders before we begin deployment to local government from tomorrow and it is not only the EC8A- the result sheet for the polling units.
“The commission is focusing on the elections to be held on 23rd February and 2nd March 2019 to ensure that they are free, fair and credible.”
He further added: “By 4pm yesterday (Monday), all issues relating to the delivery of the materials were identified and virtually addressed. Ballot papers, result sheets and a host of non-sensitive materials are now in location across the 37 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Our state offices commenced the process of inviting stakeholders to the Central Bank of Nigeria to examine the retrieved materials deployed last week and to witness the batching of materials according to Local Government Areas. This is ongoing at the moment and is expected to be completed today Tuesday, 19th February, 2019.
“The movement of materials to LGAs for batching according to wards and polling units shall take place on Wednesday and Thursday.”
On the possibility of voting in Borno State, Yakubu said: “We have identified eight local government areas where citizens reside in IDP camps, we will afford citizens to vote in the camps based.
“For what we know elections will take place in Borno State in the substantial part of the state in a normal way, just like Nigerians will vote in other states.”
NGO demands apology from INEC, NYSC over Corps members’ plight
A pan-African youth organisation, Youngstars Development Initiative (YDI), has demanded apology from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the poor treatment of Corps members who were to work as adhoc staff in the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
NYSC members recruited as ad hoc staff for the elections, who had reported at their deployed areas across the country, were abandoned.
Reports and pictures in the media showed how the corps members slept in open fields, benches and buses across the country, with INEC not caring about their safety and other conditions.
In the statement signed by its Executive Director, Mr Kingsley Bangwell, YDI said it was “greatly disappointed at the inadequate provision by INEC for the wellbeing’’ of the corps members.
It said, “Aside from the news of the postponement, Nigerians also woke up to embarrassing pictures in different media platforms depicting the pathetic conditions under which our corps members were forced to serve.
“Feedbacks from certain quarters revealed that the list of the corps members selected for the ad hoc work was released barely 48 hours to the election without proper posting details, causing further confusion for many of them.
“Corp members were not given any document stating their benefits; there are conflicting reports of how much they would get as allowance.
“Adequate security was not provided at some of the centres across the country where many corps members arrived at on Friday, neither were there any team to receive them.’’
The organisation said the corps members were therefore forced to stay dark spaces, while some slept in open fields, benches and even in buses, with no proper arrangement for conveniences.
“Due to these gaps, the lives of the NYSC members were put at risk in the course of their service to the nation,’’ it noted.
It said the situation was unacceptable as it was “below the standards of dignity of labour and dignity of the human person.’’
“Besides tendering a joint public apology, INEC and NYSC should immediately address the logistics and welfare issues,’’ the group also demanded.
It asked INEC to formally inform the corps members of their welfare packages to avoid conflicting reports and malpractices.
On Monday, the NYSC issued a statement confirming the reported hardship suffered by the affected corps members across the country.
In the statement signed by its Director of Press and Public Relations, Adenike Adeyemi, the corps said that INEC had promised to improve on the safety and welfare provisions for the corps members.
‘CBN takes delivery of
sensitive materials in Niger’
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Minna, has taken delivery of all sensitive materials for the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections in the 25 local government areas.
Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, CBN Branch Controller, who made the disclosure in Minna yesterday, while leading the police, security agencies, leaders of various political parties and other stakeholders, to inspect the sensitive materials at the bank premises.
Ibrahim said that all the sensitive materials earlier distributed to the 25 Local Government Areas are intact for the rescheduled elections.
He said that all the retrieved sensitive materials are being kept in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for safe keeping.
He explained that the sensitive materials, comprised ballot papers and result sheets, which were earlier, distributed to the 25 LGAs for the conduct of Presidential and National Assembly elections on Feb. 16.
Also speaking, Prof. Samuel Egwu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), said that the commission would collaborate with other security agencies to ensure smooth conduct of the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
“Already, we have trained the 23,000 electoral workers and equipped them with basic electoral knowledge for the exercise,” he said.
The commissioner expressed hope that the exercise would be successful, “because we have plugged holes exploited by miscreants to cause confusion during elections.”
“We have also put in place security measures to guarantee the safety of electoral materials and our workers before, during and after the exercise,’’ he said.
Saturday is your day of reckoning, Ajimobi tells opposition
Oyo South Senatorial District candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Abiola Ajimobi, has described this Saturday as a day of reckoning for the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to reap its 16 years of misrule.
He, therefore, urged leaders and supporters of the APC to remain steadfast and faithful to the course of the ruling party by ensuring that they come out in large numbers to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari to consolidate on the gains of the past four years.
Addressing a stakeholders’ forum at the Western House, state Secretariat, on Tuesday, the governor warned against complacency, adding that the desperation of the opposition to upset the applecart was unimaginable.
Ajimobi, who attended the National Executive Committee meeting of the APC in Abuja, on Monday, said the national leadership of the party had given the state executive committees the marching orders to go and reenergise the party’s campaigns.
Ajimobi said: “The opposition had adopted all manners of subterfuge and empty rhetoric to mislead the people into supporting them without success. Our people have refused to buy into their deceits, hence their desperation and provocative statements.
“I want to appeal to you not let off your guard for a moment until victory is assured in all the elections. We should not be complacent, because the opposition is throwing everything into this election as if the world will end when, mark my word I did not say if, they lose.
“This Saturday is a day of reckoning for the PDP for its 16 years of misrule. After ruining our economy and creating many loopholes and leakages that has pauperised the people and enriched their friends they are now desperate to stage a comeback.
“The APC has invested in the people in the last four years at the national level and eight years at our state level. Abandoned infrastructure and projects have been revived, with many at different stages of completion.
“Saturday is around the corner. All APC leaders and members should go back to their various units and wards to solicit the continued support of the good people of Nigeria. That is the mandate from our meeting on Monday, in Abuja.”
Poll shift won’t save Buhari
from defeat, says Ogwuru
A member of PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Prince Tim Ogwuru, has said the postponement of the presidential and National Assembly polls would not save President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, from defeat in the 36 states of the federation.
He explained that majority of Nigerians have rejected Buhari and his party and would be ready to vote them out on February 23 and March 9 and urged INEC to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
In an interview with The Nation, Ogwuru, stated that the Buhari administration has nothing more to offer Nigerians after four years and has brought Nigeria to a ground zero, stressing that it will be criminal on the part of Nigerians for Buhari to emerge President of Nigeria after May 29, 2019.
“Buhari’s days in office are numbered and if am to advise him, he should quietly do the decent thing and not continue with the process of him getting a second term. In any case, if he ready to be humiliated out of office through the ballot box, the choice remains his and his alone. The postponement of the election won’t save him and his party, APC, from electoral demise. Nigerians are yearning for genuine and credible Barton change.
“Buhari has brought pains, frustration and suffering of a monumental proportion Nigerians. The avalanche of electoral rejection from Nigerians electorate is now unstoppable. Buhari has nothing to show for the period he has been in power.”
Rivers PDP, APC in war
of words over elections
The Rivers State chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are engaging in war of words over the February 23 and March 9 general elections.
The PDP Campaign Council in Rivers state, through its Director-General, Desmond Akawor, yesterday at a crowded news conference at the campaign headquarters on Aba Road, Port Harcourt, alleged that leaders of APC in Rivers were plotting to cause havoc, destabilise, rig and abort this year’s general elections in the state.
APC in Rivers, through its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, however, urged the peace-loving people of the state and other lovers of democracy and good governance to ignore the lies and propaganda of the frustrated leaders and members of PDP, who it said would no longer be able to rig the elections, in view of the activities of vigilant and fearless security agents.
Rivers PDP said: “The purpose of this press conference is to draw the attention of Nigerians and the international community to the plot and brazen determination of the APC to violently prevent the general elections from holding in Rivers State and scuttle the rights of our people to freely and fairly elect their leaders on the 23rd of February and 9th of March, 2019.
“While the APC and its leaders continue to publicly declare their perverted intentions to take the laws into their own hands and disrupt the general elections in Rivers State with maximum violence, neither the security agencies nor the Presidency has deemed it necessary to reprimand, investigate, caution and/or arrest and prosecute them on the possible consequences of their outrageous and inciting utterances, threats and hate speeches to the peace, public order and security of lives and property in the state.
“Instead, we have started witnessing concerted efforts by the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies, especially the Nigerian Army and the Police, to actualise both the intent and content of the dangerous agenda of the APC to truncate the electoral processes in the state, as we get closer to the elections’ dates.
“Information available to us indicates that APC has procured armed thugs, military uniforms and branded military and police vehicles for the purpose of rigging the rescheduled elections.
“Let no one take our obedience to the rule of law and constitutionality in the pursuit of our democratic rights to vote and be voted for through the electoral process as an act of cowardice, acquiescence or capitulation to intimidation, lawless behaviour and dictatorship. No one has the monopoly of violence.
“We have the capacity and the will to mobilise our teeming supporters to resist intimidation and defend the collective rights of our people in Rivers State to effectively participate in the democratic process and frustrate those who are bent on denying our democratic rights, as expressly guaranteed by our constitution.”
Rivers PDP campaign council also appreciated the patriotic members of the security agencies, who it said were daily working hard under very difficult environment to ensure the protection of lives and property, and guarantee the will of the people during the general elections in the state.
The ruling PDP in Rivers then most sincerely thanked the teeming supporters of the party in the state and other parts of Nigeria for their peaceful disposition, solidarity and comportment throughout the campaigns, which it noted held without any crisis, casualty or unpleasant consequence.
Rivers APC, however, said: “The attention of our party, the APC, has been drawn to a long litany of lies placed in the public space by the Rivers State chapter of PDP, in which outlandish falsehood was bandied as truth. We can only summarise that the PDP in Rivers State is doing exactly what the Holy Bible refers to as the guilty running when no one is pursuing.
“We hereby warn the PDP to desist from maligning innocent members of the APC, who have done nothing wrong whatsoever. We believe that the Nigerian military and police that the PDP has unfortunately chosen to malign, blackmail and insult can adequately speak for themselves. We must, however, caution the PDP that our gallant soldiers and policemen, who place their lives on the line everyday to protect us, deserve a better treatment than what the PDP has chosen to embark upon.
“As a party, we shall adequately respond to the trash the PDP has put out to the public, but may I unequivocally state that no part of that PDP text should be taken seriously, as it is mere hogwash, intended to deflate attention from the evil rigging schemes of the PDP in the coming elections.
“We will like to remind the PDP leaders in Rivers State that they should gladly accept the consequences of whatever malfeasance they sent thugs to embark upon on Saturday, February 16, 2019 (stealing of 31 card readers of INEC, which were later recovered by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Rivers State) and consequently.”
The main opposition APC in Rivers also admonished the teeming members and supporters of the party to remain focused and not to be deceived by the lies of PDP leaders in the state.