The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Mahmood Yakubu is currently in a crucial meeting with stakeholders, including international and local observers over tomorrow’s Presidential and National Assembly election.
INEC is considering postponing the election due to some logistics challenges being faced by the commission in many states.
Details shortly…
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Niger State on Friday said that senatorial elections in Niger East and Niger North may postponed as the ballot papers meant for the zone are missing.
Prof. Samuel Egwu, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, made the declaration while interacting with newsmen in Minna.
“The issue has been reported to the INEC’s Headquarters in Abuja for urgent attention,” he said.
“The officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria saddled with the responsibility of securing the electoral sensitive materials have gone to Abuja for the last batch of the sensitive materials for Saturday’s elections in the state, so we are waiting,’’ he said.
Egwu said that 85 per cent of the needed facilities for the conduct of free and fare elections in the state had been provided with the non-sensitive materials already moved to various destinations across the 25 local government areas of the state.
He said that the commission trained 23,000 ad hoc staff for the elections in the state.
The REC also said that 2,181,400 eligible voters would participate during the general elections in the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Daura, Katsina State, says it has concluded arrangements for Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife, Hajiya Aisha are expected to cast their votes at Sarkin Yara A Electoral Ward in Polling Unit 003, in his hometown Daura.
NAN also reports that Sarkin Yara A has 9,242 registered voters with polling unit 003 comprising only 898 voters.
INEC said that 187 was Buhari’s serial number on the permanent voter card with which he would be identified by the relevant officers before he would be allowed to cast his vote.
He will be participating in the exercise for the fifth time as a presidential candidate under different political platforms since he ventured into politics in 2003.
He lost three times and subsequently won in 2015, defeating the incumbent president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan who was seeking re-election after the completion of the first four years in office.
The former president conceded defeat even before the then Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, formally declared the winner of the presidential race .
NAN reports that the ancient city of Daura is peaceful and normal business activities are going on and enthusiastic feelings among the people who are anxiously waiting for D-day .
NAN
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to commence distribution of sensitive materials in Edo State.
As at press time, sorting of the sensitive materials was still being carried put inside the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria under heavy security.
Party agents were seen sitting under canopies. Some bought tooth paste and brush to wash their teeth should they be made to sleep there.
Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alex Hart could not be reached for comments.
Spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State, Mr. Chris Nehikhare, in a statement last night accused INEC of sabotaging the process.
Nehikhare alleged that sensitive materials were not yet available as at 7pm.
According to the statement: “You will recall that on February 11, 2019 Edo PDP raised the alarm that INEC in collaboration with APC was planning to sabotage the elections blaming it on logistical problems.
“It’s 7.00pm on the eve of the presidential and National Assembly elections and materials for Edo are not available.
“This sabotage was orchestrated and a danger to our democracy.
“They want stand-alone elections so they can deploy their agents of intimidation and harassment. We condemn it and reject it in also its ramifications”.
Spokesman for Edo APC, Mr. Chris Azebamwan, said the PDP was crying wolf where there are known having known that they have lost the election.
Azebamwan said the PDP want to create a scenario to discredit the electoral process.
He wondered how the PDP knew sensitive materials were not available when it did not enter the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Niger State on Friday said that elections for the senatorial positions of Niger East and Niger North may not hold on Saturday as the ballot papers meant for the zone were missing.
Prof. Samuel Egwu, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, made the declaration while interacting with newsmen in Minna.
“The issue has been reported to the INEC’s Headquarters in Abuja for urgent attention.
“The officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria saddled with the responsibility of securing the electoral sensitive materials have gone to Abuja for the last batch of the sensitive materials for Saturday’s elections in the state, so we are waiting,’’ he said.
Egwu said that 85 per cent of the needed facilities for the conduct of free and fare elections in the state had been provided with the non-sensitive materials already moved to various destinations across the 25 local government areas of the state.
He said that the commission trained 23,000 ad hoc staff for the elections in the state.
The REC also said that 2,181,400 eligible voters would participate during the general elections in the state.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday assured that he would vote during the Presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for tomorrow if he is “alive.”
Obasanjo, who described the polls as a “red letter day” for Nigeria, added it should be used to stabilise the nation’s democracy.
The elder statesman made this known to reporters at his sprawling Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital while readying himself to play a squash game within the facility.
He also denied rumour on the social media he jetted out of the country without waiting to cast his vote for the Atiku Abubakar he is labouring to foist on Nigerians.
He cursed the rumour mongers, saying God would deal with them at the “appropriate time.”
He assured that he would vote at his usual polling (Ita Eko) where he registered.
Obasanjo said: “If I am here and alive and kicking, I will vote. Why do you think I will travel out of the country because of the election?
“If there is no any reason, I believe I should be here to exercise my civic responsibility which is to vote according to the dictate of my heart both tomorrow and on the 2nd of March, 2019.
“Those who are carrying that kind rumour or what they now call fake news, I think I leave them in the hands of God.
“You know, I’m used to that type of things now and in Yorubaland, we have this saying that if your head is hard, you don’t have to worry yourself.
“So, let anybody tell lies against me, let anybody issue fake news against me, let anybody abuse me, my God will deal with them rightly and at the appropriate time.
“On the elections, I believe that tomorrow should be a red letter day for all Nigerians. A day when we should be able to say that we are firmly stabilise our democracy.
“Although for me, I still have some apprehensions. If the news of the already thumb printed ballot papers in Kano state yesterday.
“I have received news in Ondo today I have received news in Ikorodu where ballot papers that have been thumb printed were allegedly intercepted there is trouble”.
“If these things are true; we haven’t had anything like these before. I don’t want to say ‘oh, have I not told you!’ But it will be sad if they are true and then, maybe, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will then have to tell us, how this has to happen and maybe the commission will have an answer to that.
“And not only answer, but precautions against this tomorrow because if people are already thumb printing, obviously they want to make sure that those already thumb printed ballot papers are used. If that happens, then it will make nonsense of all that INEC has prepared for and all that Nigerians are looking forward to.”
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of hoarding the presidential and senatorial elections result sheets for undisclosed reasons.
The party also claimed that its agents were being denied the INEC accreditation and identification cards, ostensibly to shut them out of the election monitoring process and allow the All Progressives Congress (APC) a field day to manipulate the process.
In a statement on Friday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said its monitoring and intelligence showed that INEC has been distributing sensitive election materials in most states of the federation without the presidential and senatorial elections results sheets.
The statement said, “The development is already heightening tension and suspicion of underhand method by the commission to open the elections for manipulations and allow the APC to enter fictitious results for onward transmission to collation centers.
“Intelligence available to us indicate that this is part of the plot for which President Muhammadu Buhari’s relation by marriage, Mrs. Amina Zakari, has been retained as the head of the INEC collation center.
“The PDP therefore cautions INEC to show its impartiality by immediately releasing the Presidential and senatorial elections result sheet as well as the accreditation cards. Any further delay will be a clear recipe for crisis as Nigerians are already highly agitated over the matter.
“INEC should note that Nigerians are very anxious about this election and any action that, in anyway, portrays or tends to portray the process as being manipulated is capable of triggering a crisis of unprecedented proportion in our country”.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Lokoja, Kogi, says it has concluded the distribution of sensitive materials for the Presidential and National Assembly elections to all the 21 local government areas of the state.
The Director of Voter Education and Publicity in the Office, Alhaji Ahmed Biambo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lokoja that the distribution of the materials started at about 2 p.m. on Feb. 14 and ended in the early hours of Friday.
He said that the materials had safely reached the various local government headquarters from where they would be distributed to the 239 wards in the state.
Biambo said that the problem of mixed up and shortage of some materials identified in the course of the distribution had been resolved, saying that all categories of electoral officers had also been dispatched to the various duty posts
He expressed the commission’s readiness to conduct free, fair and credible elections and urged the electorate to come out and vote for candidates of their choice, announcing that “there are 1,646,350 registered voters in the state.”
Meanwhile, Lokoja, the state capital has virtually become empty as many residents, including workers in private and public sectors left the city for their various communities to go and participate in the Feb. 16 elections.
A NAN correspondent observed that many motor parks in the city were flooded by travellers, who board vehicles to their various destinations.
Nigerians will go to the polls on Saturday to vote in the Presidential, House of Representatives and Senate elections.
NAN
LAGOS lawyer Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have faulted the Attorney General for the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on his letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the said letter, Malami had advised INEC to postpone the general elections in Zamfara State, to accommodate a ruling of the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal, purportedly directing the electoral body to allow the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) field candidates for the upcoming elections.
Falana said by virtue of Section 158 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, INEC “shall not be subject to the direction or control of any authority or person”.
The lawyer said: “Furthermore, the proviso to Section 160 of the amended Constitution states that the powers of INEC ‘to make its own rules or otherwise regulate its own procedures shall not be subject to the approval or control of the President’.
“Therefore, the AGF lacks the vires to advise or direct INEC to postpone the elections scheduled to hold in any state of the federation. Since the judgment of the Court of Appeal on the nomination of APC candidates in Zamfara State admits of no ambiguity, INEC is advised to do the needful and ignore the directive of the AGF on the conduct of the elections.”
Also yesterday, the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, described the AGF’s letter to INEC as part of APC’s design to arm-twist the commission and the judiciary to take illegal actions in their favour.
Addressing a news conference at the Legacy House, the party’s Abuja campaign office, Secondus said what the AGF was seeking is not backed by law.