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Tag: Independent National Electoral Commission

  • Police, DSS urge INEC to postpone Edo guber poll

    Police, DSS urge INEC to postpone Edo guber poll

    The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Department of State Services (DSS) on Wednesday appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the Edo governorship election scheduled for Sept. 10, citing security threat.

    The Force Spokesman, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Don Awunah, made the call at a joint news conference by the police and the DSS in Abuja.

    He said that credible intelligence available to the agencies indicated plans by insurgent and extremist elements to attack vulnerable communities and soft targets.

    Awunah said that Edo was among the states being earmarked for the planned attacks by the extremists between Sept. 12 and 13 respectively.

    He said that while election was important, security agencies cannot allow the peace of the country to be disrupted.

    ” We will continue to be vigilant and ensure consolidation of the successes gained in the current counter-insurgency fight.

    “It is in these regard that we are appealing to INEC which has the legal duty to regulate elections in the country to consider the need for possible postponement of the date of the election,” he said.

    He said that the postponement would afford security agencies to deal decisively with the envisaged terrorist threats.

    “While the police and DSS remain mindful of the inconveniences this request may cause stakeholders, it is our strong resolve that security agencies need not to be distracted from ensuring a peaceful Nigeria,” he said.

    The spokesman assured Nigerians that security agencies in the country would continue to remain focused and committed.

    “The attention of security agencies should be drawn to any observed unusual movements or actions by groups or individuals in your neighbourhoods,” he said.

     

  • Edo polls: WAEC relocates candidates to Delta, Ondo

    Edo polls: WAEC relocates candidates to Delta, Ondo

    The West African Examination Council (WAEC) on Tuesday said it has secured examination centres in Agbor, Delta state and Ore in Ondo state for candidates writing the General Certificate Examination (GCE) on Saturday,  September 10 in Edo state.

    It will be recalled that Edo state governorship election is expected to hold on the same day secondary schools students in the state are expected to sit for their mathematics paper.

    This is just as Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) confirmed on Tuesday that it would go ahead with the poll as planned despite protest from secondary school students who called for a shift in the date of the election to allow them write their papers.

    INEC through the Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of the commission, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, also said it would not be involved in the relocation of the candidates.

    It added that the idea to relocate candidates to other states for examination is purely the responsibility of the state government, adding that INEC would not compensate any candidate.

    The Head, Public Affairs for WAEC Nigeria, Demianus Ojijeogu, who spoke with our reporter in Abuja yesterday, said the council would go ahead with the examination on that day.

    Ojijeogu also stated that WAEC would not be responsible for the relocation of the candidates to the two states, adding that the council is hoping the state government would assist with the relocation of the candidates.

    He added that WAEC officials would be on ground to conduct the examination for candidates who would be at the venue of the examination.

    “We went to Agbor, we have already secured venue. We went to Ore in Ondo state to secure exam centres for them. So that is where we are. Yes we have. Agbor in Delta state and Ore in Ondo state. We have secured centres already.

    “No. It’s our belief that the Edo State Government being the guardian of the candidates can make such an arrangement & also provide security for them.

    “If push comes to show, we will go and wait for them. Our exam officials will be in Ore in Ondo and Agbor in Delta state in the centres designated for that exams on that day. Those that come we will conduct exams for them but we still believe that something is going to happen between now and tomorrow,” he said in a text message sent to our reporter.

    He explained that WAEC wrote a letter to INEC to allow the candidates and WAEC officials free movement on the day of the examination after proper accreditation.

    According to him, the request was turned down for security reasons, adding that the police insisted on restriction of movement on that day.

    He said: “We wrote to INEC headquarters in Abuja and copied the state INEC in Edo state, copied the commissioner of police alerting them that our mathematics paper is clashing with the election.

    “Our view was that they should exempt our examination officials who will be properly accredited and candidates who will also be identified, they should grant them exemption from the restriction of government on that day so that they can write the paper because the subject is a core subject. It is mathematics.

    “The next thing we got a reply from INEC and even the commissioner of police inviting us for a meeting in Benin City. That was on august 25th. I was at the meeting and then when we got to the meeting we discovered that they had already met on the level of inter-agency consultative committee on election in edo state and trashed our issue that WAEC should relocate the candidates to states that is closer to Edo state.

    “We told them that this thing is not workable. Because one, research has shown that when you move candidates from where they have prepared for exams to another state or where they have been writing exams to another location if affects them psychologically.

    “On Wednesday, on the 29th of august we got a letter INEC sent to us saying that the commission in liaison with the security operating in Edo state after our joint meeting with officials of the organization advised WAEC to relocate the candidates to any state that are… to Edo state. This position is borne out of the fact that movement of every Nigerian living in edo state will be restricted on the election Day and such security arrangement cannot be compromised.

    They said that they cannot grant our request for the exemption of examination functionaries and candidates from any movement on the day of the election so we were left with nothing. There is nothing else to do. The exam must be conducted. It is an international exam in the sense that the paper will be written in the Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, as well as in Nigeria at the same time.

    “We have one other thing to do since they don’t want a gathering on the election day because they said it will compromise election security for the sake of these children let us move these centres to neighbouring states- delta, and Ondo.

    “We are also pleading with the government. We are expecting that the government can shift ground and say okay, since there will be free movement on that day for eligible voters that the candidates can also be allowed to go and write the exam as long as they are properly identified. We are still expecting that to happen.”

  • TMG tackles INEC over inconclusive polls

    TMG tackles INEC over inconclusive polls

    The newly inaugurated Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Monday said condemned the comment by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, that Nigerians should not expect a conclusive election in 2019,

    She urged the Commission to conclude the 2019 general elections, for it to be taken serious by the local and international community.

    Speaking in Abuja shortly after her inauguration, she also advocated electoral offences commission to address all forms of electoral irregularities including violence and immunities.

    The civil society, she said, must consolidate their work with the Nigerian people and set agenda that will guarantee good governance and accountability.

    She said, “One major concern to the polity is the re-occurring problems of inconclusive elections which TMG is poised to work with other stakeholders to address so that subsequent elections are duly concluded, legitimate and reflect the wishes of the voters and the general populace. This task becomes the more urgent with the recent position of the Chairman of INEC, that the electoral umpire cannot guarantee the Nigerian people conclusive polls come 2019; that is a defeatist statement which does not augur well for the country.”

    Akiyode-Afolabi said, while it is true that chronic insecurity in the electoral space has been largely responsible for the inconclusiveness of recent elections, INEC has an important role to play “if we must address all inconclusiveness in the electoral process.”

    “The commission must be proactive in putting systems in place and in educating voters in electoral constituencies to help them understand the realities of the process. We are therefore call for an Electoral Offences Commission to address electoral impunity,” she suggested.

    She said while Nigeria stands in dire need of a formidable force to entrench democratic values through credible elections, no other coalition or organisation in Nigeria is better positioned to achieve this feat than TMG.

    “In essence, we all have a historic responsibility to make the aspirations Nigerians come true by empowering them to demand, defend and claim their electoral rights and holding our leaders and the system accountable. The task before us is to engage the civic space and other critical stakeholders, to ensure election results reflect the wishes of the people. This is the road to travel to ensure effective representation at all levels of government, without which good governance would not be possible.

    “On our part, TMG on my watch will provide the leadership required by civil society to engage the most fundamental issues facing the electoral process. We have an electoral law that deserves review; there is the impunity in the system which we must never be tired of mobilising Nigerians to reject. However, we will not achieve these laudable goals without a united front. I therefore seek a united front and urge everyone to join hands with us as begin this important journey,” Akiyode-Afolabi stated.

  • ‎INEC issues APC, Uwajumogu certificate of return

    ‎INEC issues APC, Uwajumogu certificate of return

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has issued Mr. Benjamin Uwajumogu – Imo North senator-elect, the certificate of return.

    Uwajumogu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was declared the winner in the Imo state rerun election.

    Ambassador Lawrence Nwuruku‎ – INEC commissioner representing South East, presented the certificate of return to him.

    Speaking after receiving the certificate, he said his election was a confirmation that APC has acceptance the South East contrary to what the opposition party in the state was claiming.

    He said, “It is a mere speculate.  Igbo has proven that it can vote APC. What happened in 2015 election was that we have a sitting president from PDP and there was no election. It was all violence, and security agencies against the opposition party. But in this election, it was a different people, they voted, and what it means is that the APC has a home in Imo State, and that they support President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.”

    Uwajumogu who was accompanied to the Abuja INEC Headquarters by a large number of supporters said it now time for the state and the nation to move on.

    On the violence that necessitated the rerun, he said, “this is now in the past, the election has come and gone, the election was free and fair and we are grateful to people of Okigwe who conducted themselves well. A winner has emerged, let’s move forward.

    On his mission at senate, he said “I will be one of the 109. Am coming there as one who will work with establishment.  I am not going there to take anybody’s position. I hope when I get to the senate I will effectively represent my people.”

  • APC: 2,304 delegates expected for Edo primary

    APC: 2,304 delegates expected for Edo primary

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) says 2,304 delegates will be electing a gubernatorial candidate for the party in Edo on June 18.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja reports that 12 delegates from a 192 wards in 18 local government areas will converge on Benin to choose a candidate out of the 12 aspirants angling for the top job in the state.

    NAN also reports that of the 12 aspirants, 11 bought their expression of interest and nomination forms for N5.5 million each while one, a woman, got hers for free.

    Some of the aspirants confirmed the allegation that some fellows were buying up Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) ahead of the Sept. 10 election in the state.

    An aspirant, Mr Charles Airhiavbere, told newsmen at the APC secretariat that such acts were fraudulent, despicable and shameful.

    “That information is correct. Delegates have reported some elements buying up PVCs for N5,000.

    “This is a gross abuse of human rights. It’s a challenge a leader has to face in the future. It’s painful to hear.

    “One aspirant had to post an advert that people should not sell their birth rights. In Owan, one buyer was driven out of that area,” Airhiavbere said.

    On another allegation that the aspirants were being pressured to step down, Airhiavbere said: “I will not be in that category of people stepping down for other aspirants.

    “Aside that where is the democracy if I step down; that is a psychological warfare but for me I won’t step down for anyone.’’

    Another aspirant and incumbent deputy governor, Mr Pius Odubu, told newsmen that “I’ve heard that allegation too but I cannot confirm whether it is true or not.

    “In any case if anyone does that, it’s just a wasteful exercise because there are other forms of identification aside from the PVCs.

    “What you need is to properly identify yourself at the polling unit through the voter’s register… so anybody buying up PVCs doesn’t believe in the tenets of democracy.”

    For Mr Chris Ogiemwonyi, the I-G, Independent National Electoral Commission and the APC should look into the allegation before the primary.

    He condemned the action that a lawmaker, Rep. Phillip Shuaibu, allegedly invited members to his house and mandated them to come with their PVCs for an exchange of N10,000 each.

    “The lawmaker called the delegates to his house requesting, threatening and intimidating the delegates to submit their PVCs to him with an intent to disenfranchise voters and use the PVCs for other purposes.

    “As we speak the process is ongoing. This is wrong, it is not the democracy we fought for. We do not want PDP to take over the state.

    “I call on the APC leadership not to allow a process that is flawed and challengeable in court to produce the next gubernatorial candidate.

    “I’m equally surprised that today, the Edo House of Assembly, led by the Speaker, never sat.

    “We are raping democracy. Are they supposed to be here with an aspirant. That is disgraceful, unacceptable, shameful and wicked.

    “We believe the process can be managed and that is why we are talking with the APC leadership,” he said.

    Reacting to the allegation, the aspirant, Mr Godwin Obaseki, said: “I don’t believe that Ogiemwonyi with his standing will say that. I hold him in high esteem.

    “I can tell you that nothing like that happened. For someone to make such a flimsy, unguarded statement is quite unfortunate.

    “Everybody has a right to prefer somebody in a race. Having worked with everybody if the governor decides to choose someone is there anything wrong with that.

    “What has put me at an advantage is the skills and quality I have as a person. The governor did not appoint any of these people, they chose me so that says a lot.”

    He said it was very erroneous to say nothing had been done in the state for the past eight years because “if the government before us did a tenth of what Oshiomhole did with the allocation the state had then, we would have had a platform or something tangible to work with”.

     

  • Rivers Re-run: INEC did not disqualify PDP candidate – REC

    Rivers Re-run: INEC did not disqualify PDP candidate – REC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Friday that it did not disqualify, Mr Tonye Alalibo, PDP candidate for Akuku-Toru Constituency 11, from participating in re-run election in Rivers.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt that judgment of election tribunal and Court of Appeal excluded the party and its candidate from participating in the election.

    NAN recalls that the All Progressives Congress candidate, Mr. Fredrick Anabraba, won the election for the constituency with 2,970 votes.

    Ikoiwak explained that two days to the re-run, the commission wrote to the state chapter of PDP informing it that the party and its candidate had been excluded in the election.

    “The decision was taken by the commission in compliance with the judgment of the tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal,” he said.

    The commissioner said insinuations that the commission deliberately disqualified the candidate was false and baseless.

    He said the courts took the decision and INEC complied.

    Ikoiwak said the commission would fix a date for repeat election in the eight local government areas where the exercise was cancelled due to irregularities.

     

  • Rivers rerun crisis:  Lawmaker blames INEC, stakeholders

    The Lawmaker representing Epe Constituency II in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Segun Olulade has blamed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and stakeholders in Rivers State for the lingering electoral violence which has left the electoral process in a comatose.

    Olulade said the crisis that has engulfed the state is a sign that INEC under the new Chairman on one hand has showed incapability of the commission to conduct free and fair elections following the Bayelsa and Kogi debacles.

    He also noted that party men in Rivers State on the other hand have demonstrated lack of political maturity, fair play and genuine concern for Rivers people who are usually at the receiving end in the long run.

    The lawmaker explained that the idea of preparing for election like war is unfortunate for the nation’s democracy, just as he pointed out that Rivers people are the innocent victims in this circumstance considering the number of lives lost and properties destroyed in the process.

    While noting that other states have started enjoying governance, Olulade lamented that the people of Rivers State still suffer from the ego of major actors in the contest.

    “I suggest that the Federal Government through the National Orientation Agency and INEC should review voters’ education to ensure the electorates do not allow themselves to become constant tools of violence during elections.

    “I also appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to consider mop-up of arms and ammunitions currently domiciled in the entire Niger-Delta areas, which was caused by illegal arms deals and activities of the militants in the area”, Olulade said.

    He also appealed to all warring factions to consider innocent residents and indigenes of the state that are dying each time there is crisis in the state, “and they should prove to the masses that they are not only vying for their selfish interests by eschewing violence in the State.

    “The current development in Rivers State is a setback to Nigeria’s democracy as it has continued to portray the nation’s democracy in bad light before the entire world. The era of do-or-die politics should be forgone and that decisions of electorates should be allowed to prevail. That is true democracy,” Olulade added.

  • APC, PDP must accept blame for Rivers Killings – Okupe 

    The leaderships of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party must accept blame for the killings in Rivers Rerun election, a former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, has said.

    Okupe, who condemned the killings, also called on the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission as well as the security to take the blame for the deaths.

    “The scale of violence that accompanied the Rivers Re run elections is condemnable and unacceptable. All principal participants must accept responsibility for this intolerable acts savagery. By all principals I mean, PDP, APC and their leaderships, the INEC, and the entire gamut of our security agencies,” he said in a post on his Facebook page.

    He noted that the destruction of lives and properties that have accompanied Nigeria’ selections in varying degrees this year was no longer excusable.

    According to Okupe, the frequent deaths of citizens, electoral officials, members of the security forces have assumed highly barbaric proportions.

    He also condemned the reported death of a Youth Corps member engaged during the rerun election in the state.

    Okupe said: “As a Nigerian parent whose children will still go through this national calling, I cease this opportunity to call on other Nigerian parents and well meaning Nigerians to prevail on INEC to stop with immediate effect the deployment of our children for electoral services.

    “We can no longer bear the pain of losing our wards to mindless acts of lawlessness by thugs and hooligans acting for and on behalf of reckless, desperate and irresponsible politicians and power mongers.

    “INEC stands accused in all this dastardly developments. Before going into an election in any volatile area they ought to obtain full security reports of the area in question and also confer with the police and the army to get written assurance that they can guarantee the security of electoral materials and officers.

    “Firstly it is unacceptable that INEC will still be involved in moving electoral materials all over the place on Election Day. All materials for election must arrive all LGA headquarters two weeks before Election Day.

    “They must arrive all wards one whole week before elections, only to be moved to the polling stations accompanied by security in the morning of the elections. All personnel including security should be at the wards at least 2days before the elections and be familiarized with their areas of duty and their security details before the D Day.

    “In special volatile areas like Rivers and others as to be advised by police and the intelligence agencies, a minimum of five armed personnel per polling station with availability of standby re enforcement in each LGA quarters. If it is impossible for any reason that these provisions can be made available, elections in such areas must be deferred.

    “In the case of this re run in Rivers, INEC the main organ empowered by our laws to conduct and oversee elections ought to have correctly projected these events and prevented it by breaking the elections into two episodes separated by one week. It is not acceptable for INEC, after its publicly manifested incompetence, to just come up after each mayhem, technical and administrative failure, and announce gleefully that the elections are “Inconclusive”.‎

    “If the present leadership in INEC is incompetent, the federal government should not waste time and continue to expose the citizenry to misery and pain. The entire organization should be overhauled. The security agencies must keep their roles to their professional calling. Voting and the processes that are before or after it are not their business.

    “Politicians, thugs and all persons involved directly or indirectly in acts of violence should be tried and if found guilty should be sanctioned with punishments ranging from death sentences to life imprisonment depending on their level of involvement.

    “For the next re run in Rivers, Gov Wike, and Amaechi and at least ten of their proven closest aides must be moved out of Rivers state into protective custody, deprived of their phones for a day before the new elections and on the day of elections. Enough of violence in our elections.”

     

  • Rivers: INEC dismisses report on fake result sheets

    Rivers: INEC dismisses report on fake result sheets

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has condemned allegations of Fake Result sheets being deployed for election in Akuku-Toru, Tai and Bonny Local Government Areas of Rivers State for the ongoing Election rerun.

    The commission made this known in a post that appeared on its Social media handle saying: “The Allegations are untrue and they should be discountenanced. Voters are advised to come out and Exercise their franchise peacefully.

    “However, Result sheets with BAR CODES and Serial Number are valid. Remember: Voting starts and ends until the last person accredited has voted.”

  • ‘Fake’ Ondo PDP lawmakers may be arraigned soon

    ‘Fake’ Ondo PDP lawmakers may be arraigned soon

    •Assembly Speaker, Clerk in trouble

    TWO Ondo Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers – Abayomi Akinruntan and Malachi Coker representing Ilaje 1 and 11 State Constituencies – may be arraigned in court soon for alleged assumption of office without Certificate of Returns from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The arraignment followed the conclusion of their interrogation by the police.

    Sources said the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Princess Jumoke Akindele, and the Clerk, Bode Adeyelu, may also not be spared.

    The  two lawmakers, who were allegedly sworn in illegally on June 1, had earlier being invited to the Force Headquarters for interrogation over the matter.

    It was learnt that investigation was concluded last Thursday by the police from the Federal Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Abuja.

    The probe, sources said, was delayed till last week to enable the clerk make his statement, which he eventually did last Wednesday.

    It was learnt that the investigation, which started on July 8, took the FCID operatives to Akure, the Ondo State capital, on two occasions.

    It also involved the questioning of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Segun Agbaje, and the two Returning officers for Ilaje I and II in the April 11 House of Assembly election, which was adjudged inconclusive by the INEC.

    INEC had declared that the election was marred with widespread irregularities.

    Sources added that the inability to arraign the four persons involved in the matter last week was because the Assistant Inspector General(AIG), who was in charge of criminal investigation at the FCIB, Mr. A. Adeniji, has been promoted to Deputy Inspector General(DIG) and moved to the Force Headquarters.

    It was learnt that the officer deployed to replace him was “yet to be fully briefed” as at yesterday.

    The police started their probe after the Ondo State All Progressives Congress (APC), through its lawyer, Charles Titiloye, petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) that the Speaker and the clerk allegedly conspired to fraudulently swearin Akinruntan and Coker without the Certificates of Return from the INEC.

    The two lawmakers escaped arrest when detectives from the Force Headquarters stormed Akure to pick them few weeks ago.

    They eventually made themselves available for interrogation.