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Tag: Inec

  • 759,780 PVCs uncollected in Oyo, says INEC

    The Oyo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Mutiu Agboke, has said 759,780 uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are in the custody of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state.

    Agboke spoke yesterday in Ibadan, the state capital, during the handing-over ceremony organised for the incoming Administrative Secretary, Mr David Asemo.

    The REC said the increase in the number of uncollected PVCs in the state was because the commission had just received another batch arising from last year’s registration.

    He said the commission was intensifying efforts at ensuring that people participate in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR)   and collect their PVCs.

    Agboke said INEC was in the second phase of this year’s CVR to encourage more people to participate.

    He said: “The commission has registered 320,593, out of which we have 164,378 males and 156,215 females. We have also, as at today, distributed 32,061 permanent voter cards.

    “The commission has transferred 23,368 Permanent Voter Cards and replaced 17,939 lost or defaced PVCs.”

    Agboke debunked the allegation in some quarters that INEC was registering foreigners ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    The REC said there was no way the commission would allow the name of a foreigner to remain on its list.

    He challenged anyone with genuine proof to present it.

    INEC’s outgoing Administrative Secretary in Oyo State, Alhaji Surajudeen Ajani, expressed gratitude for the support given to him by the commission’s workers.

    Ajani urged the workers to extend the same cooperation and support to the incoming Administrative Secretary.

    The incoming Administrative Secretary, Asemo, sought the support of the workers t enable him perform optimally.

    He promised not to disappoint them.

  • 563, 051 PVCs collected in Ekiti, says INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has indicated that a total of 563, 051 Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) have been collected by registered voters in Ekiti State, 27 days to the governorship election.

    Spokesman of the commission in the state, Taiwo Gbadegesin told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ado Ekiti yesterday that the state has a total of 913, 334 registered voters and that 353, 262 PVCs were yet to be collected by their owners.

    On preparations for the election, Gbadegesan said that INEC was 94 per cent ready, adding that it had already distributed “virtually” all the non-sensitive election materials to all the 16 local governments.

    He said the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, would visit the state on July 10, to interact with candidates and officials of the 35 political parties, as well as other stakeholders participating in the election.

  • 563, 051 PVCs collected in Ekiti – INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) said on Monday a total of 563, 051 Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) have been collected by registered voters in Ekiti State, 27 days to the governorship election.

    Spokesman of the commission in the state, Taiwo Gbadegesin told newsmen in Ado Ekiti that the state has a total of 913, 334 registered voters.

    He said there were 353, 262 PVCs that were yet to be collected by their owners.

    Read Also: Ekiti 2018: Hold Fayose responsible for latest violence Adeyeye

    On preparations for the election, Gbadegesan said that INEC was 94 percent ready, adding that it had already distributed “virtually” all the non-sensitive election materials to all the 16 Local Governments in the state.

    According to him, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu would visit the state on July 10, to interact with candidates and officials of the 35 political parties as well as other stakeholders participating in the election.

    NAN

  • Falana to Fed Govt, INEC: prevent vote-buying in Ekiti and Osun polls

    Lagos lawyer Mr. Femi Falana has urged the Federal Government to enforce the electoral law which criminalises vote-buying in the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states.

    He said this would ensure the credibility of the elections.

    Falana made the plea in his keynote address at the national electoral stakeholders’ summit organised by Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) with support from the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development in Lagos.

    The frontline lawyer listed various impediments to credible elections, including vote-buying, bribery and conspiracy, noted that there had been no political will to criminalise the offence in Nigeria.

    He regretted that in the last few years, vote-buying and bribery during elections had been mind-blogging.

    Falana said: “In the last three or four elections, between 2015 and now, we have witnessed this disturbing phenomenon of vote-buying on the day of election. It is so embarrassing for us as a people because some of these elections are not monitored by our people alone but all over world. The foreigners will go back home and say that corruption has been institutionalised in Nigeria; that on the day of elections, voters are paid before casting their votes.”

    The lawyer said Nigeria was becoming a laughing stock among the comity of nations due to vote-buying during elections.

    He urged Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun governorship elections to implement the law against vote-buying.

    According to him, cases of vote-buying and other electoral offences are often discontinued by attorneys-general in some states.

    Falana said this had been a drawback on the nation’s desire to ensure credible polls.

    The lawyer called for an independent electoral offence panel, as stipulated in the Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais Penal Report, to deal with electoral offences in Nigeria.

    He said: “Many of the electoral offences committed during elections are often times quietly withdrawn by some attorneys-general in some states on the ground that the state is not willing to prosecute.”

    On the premise that many Nigerians were hungry and open to bribery on the day of elections, Falana challenged INEC, political parties and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to begin enlightenment campaigns that would help Nigerians to demand answers to their problems from politicians.

    He said: “Nigerians across the country must get politicians to be accountable. Those we have elected, we must make them to account and justify why we should renew their mandate. Unless we do that we are not going to get out of criminality. Yes, people are hunger but it is never a justification for them to demand for money before voting.”

    TMG’s Chairperson Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi said the event was meant to create awareness and provide an opportunity for the public and stakeholders to bare their minds on grey areas in the electoral system that should be revisited to ensure a smooth transition from one democratically elected government to another.

    She called for collaboration between the media and civil society groups, as co-actors in the political space, to strengthen the process and the performances of INEC to ensure free, fair and credible elections in 2019.

     

  • Congress: INEC, APC urge court to reject motion to stop Lagos delegates

    •Court fixes June 19 for ruling

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have urged a Federal High Court in Abuja to refuse a motion seeking to restrain them from recognising Lagos State’s delegates for the June 23 national convention of the party.

    INEC and APC made the request in their separate counter-arguments to the motion for interlocutory injunctions filed by an aggrieved member of the APC in Lagos State, Bunmi Tayo Church.

    Church, whose substantive suit is challenging the outcome of the last ward, local government and state congresses of the APC in Lagos State, is seeking the interlocutory injunction pending the determination of the main suit.

    He urged the court to restrain APC and INEC “from according recognition or giving effect to the results of the first defendant’s (APC) Lagos chapter’s purported ward congress, local government congress and state congresses, pending the determination of the substantive suit”.

    Church also prayed the court for an interlocutory injunction restraining the APC from parading any person(s) or permitting any person(s) to parade themselves as being the persons elected by virtue of the first defendant’s Lagos chapter’s purported ward, local government and state congresses, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

    Akin Olujinmi (SAN), who represented Church, argued the motion and urged the court to grant his client’s reliefs to preserve the res (subject) of the case.

    Olujinmi averred that since the APC’s national congress was scheduled for June 23, there was need to preserve the subject of the substantive suit.

    He said there were special issues to be tried in the main suit, which seeks, among others, the determination of whether or not the congresses conducted in Lagos State should not be set aside since the party had allegedly flouted the nation’s constitution, its own constitution and guidelines for the conduct of ward, local government and state congresses.

    In its counter-argument, APC faulted the competence of the motion for interlocutory injunctions and urged the court to refuse it.

    INEC’s lawyer, Alhassan Umar, also urged the court to refuse the motion on the grounds that it contains similar prayers as those contained in the substantive suit.

    The lawyer argued that the plaintiff failed, in his argument, to disclose any legal right he seeks to protect or show any serious issues to be tried in the main case.

    He added: “Where the facts in support of the interlocutory application are similar to those in support of the main claim or are entirely interwoven with the facts required to determine the case on the merit, a court of equity is enjoined to decline granting the interlocutory application.

    “Instead, the court is enjoined to order accelerated hearing of the substantive matter. This is so because the court, in doing otherwise, may fall into the unhealthy situation of deciding the same issue twice.

    “First, at the interlocutory stage, and then, the ultimate decision at the end of the trial. Such a procedure will be prejudicial to a fair trial of the substantive case.

    “The law is that the court should avoid the resolution of complex and intricate issues at the interlocutory stage.

    “It is submitted that the plaintiff/applicant has not satisfied the requirements to enable the court exercise its discretion in favour of granting the reliefs sought on the face of the motion for interlocutory injunctions.”

    After listening to arguments by lawyers representing the parties, Justice Binta Nyako adjourned till June 19 for ruling.

    In his affidavit supporting the main suit, Church, who claimed to be interested in contesting for the party’s chairmanship in Mushin Local Government Area, said he would have realised his ambition and become a delegate but for the unlawful way the congresses were conducted.

    He contended that the congresses conducted in Lagos were in violation of the party’s constitution, its guidelines for the conduct of ward, local government and state congresses and the Constitution of Nigeria (as amended).

  • Violence: INEC suspends CVR in 2 Kogi LGs

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says  it has  suspended the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in some communities in Bassa and Dekina Local Government Areas of Kogi.

    The state’s  Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. James Apam,  who announced this during a press conference in Lokoja on Wednesday,  blamed the development on persistent violent clashes within  the affected communities.

    Apam also disclosed that the commission has had cause to suspend the exercise in Omala Local Government sometimes  this year for similar reason

    He said that the communities where the exercise was  being put on hold were unsafe for  INEC staff to work there.

    “ We believe that the security agencies and traditional rulers are aware of these security breaches and are taking steps to bring them to an end,” Apam said.

    According to him, a quick return of normalcy to the communities will enable INEC officials to go and capture the particulars of eligible voters and replace lost voter cards.

    The commissioner,  however, said that 245,195 new voters have been registered in the state since the commencement of  CVR in April last year.

    Apam said that the new registrants were made up of 123,877 males and 121,318 female while the commission had also treated 9,774 applications for transfer and  12,123 cases of damaged or defaced permanent voter cards.

    The REC further explained that 59, 078 voter cards had been issued to those who registered before the 2015 general elections, adding  that 200,429 cards were still lying uncollected.

    He said that the office had also  taken delivery of newly printed 112 , 333 permanent voter cards as well as cards  for those who had newly registered  and those who applied for inter-state transfer of their cards from April to December 2017.

    Apam regretted that only 7,943 of the newly printed 112,333 voter cards had been collected as at Tuesday,  appealing to traditional  rulers, press and registered political parties to assist in mobilising Nigerians to collect their cards.

    He also said that the INEC was making arrangements to take  issuance of  PVCs  closer to the people. (NAN)

  • Ekiti: PPC petitions INEC

    Providence Peoples Congress (PPC) has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was making moves to exclude it from taking part in the July 14 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State.

    The national chairman of PPC, Mr Benson Adetona, explained that INEC has taken some drastic steps to frustrate the activities of his party and debar it from political participation.

    He stressed further that the PPC would institute a legal action against the electoral umpire if it fails to reverse the unjustifiable “negative decision.”

    He described the action by INEC as a deliberate one, adding that PPC has petitioned the INEC national chairman with warning notice that INEC should reverse the action against the party within the stipulated days.

    In the statement, the PPC said, “INEC published a time table dated 5th Day of October 2017 and signed by the secretary to the commission which determines all activities by political parties in pursuance of the forthcoming Ekiti State election.

    “The statement listed on the time table to be submitted by the 15th day of May 2018 are forms CF001 and CF002, PPC complied with all the regulations.”

    The submissions in Abuja were supposed to close on the said 15th day of May, 2018.

    The statement also maintained that upon presenting PPC documents for acceptance at the INEC head office on May 14, 2018, the officer in charge instructed PPC to file additional documents, which were not listed on the time table and refused to accept PPC’s documents without these additions, being Forms EC 4 (V) (VI). The officer in charge in addition also told us that we would be able to file after May 15, 2018.

    “Upon presenting the Party’s Document on May 17, 2018 pursuant to INEC officers’ direction and representations, PPC was informed by the same officer that the deadline for submissions had closed and that our documents could not be accepted for submissions.”

    The party observed that the misrepresentation by INEC would cause the party to miss out on the forthcoming Ekiti elections and urged INEC chairman to use his good office to address the situation given the fact that the party has complied with all INEC requirements.

     

  • INEC yet to receive NASS resolution on release of results

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to receive the resolution of the National Assembly asking it to release the result of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    The military government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida halted the release of the results and the announcement of the winner after states had released the results. Gen. Babangida, annulled the results and declared the election invalid.

    The resolution of the Senate followed President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day and the posthumous award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) to Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the election. However, INEC yesterday said it was yet to receive the resolution of the NASS on the release of the result.  Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzi, Director, Voter Education and Publicity, told our correspondent in a telephone  chat that the commission was yet to receive the copy of the resolution.

    Uzi also said there was nothing the commission until it was in possession of the resolution.  He explained that it would amount to mere speculation for INEC to react over the said resolution.   The Nation also gathered that INEC might not be in a position to carry out the assignment when it eventually received the resolution, as the commission was not in existence at the time the election was conducted.

    The election was conducted by the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria under the Chairmanship of Prof. Humphrey Nwosu while the current electoral body, INEC, was only created in 1998. Uzi said: “We have not received the resolution and so we cannot comment until we have received it. When we get it, we will study and then react to it. Since we don’t have it, that is speculative, and I can’t speculate.  Ends

  • Inec, eu partner for credible election

    •Politicians buying pvcs are wasting their time

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the European Union (EU) are working together to ensure a credible governorship election in Ekiti State.

    The EU, through its arm, the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), has begun the training of INEC staff, corps members and staff and students of federal tertiary institutions to be used for the poll.

    The trainees are getting acquainted with modern and digitalised electoral process under the leadership of Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC).

    Speaking at the training in Ado-Ekiti, INEC National Commissioner in charge of Ekiti, Oyo and Osun States, Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, disclosed that some staff and students of some federal institutions will officiate at the governorship poll.

    This, he said, will make up for the shortfall recorded in the number of NYSC required to conduct the election, saying this was not attempt to compromise the integrity of the election.

    The INEC chief commended ECES for taking interest in those things that will boost the integrity of Nigeria’s elections.

    Reacting to allegations of purchase of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by politicians ahead of the election, Soyebi described it as an effort in futility because of the technology to be used during the exercise.

    He said: “No one can vote for anybody by proxy, because we will test the fingerprints. In fact, a more voter-friendly enhanced Smart Card Readers will be deployed for the conduct of Ekiti election.”

    Speaking the training, Soyebi said: “The EMSC is a programme specially conceived to give skills to staff of this commission. We have passed through many trainings but this is very special and important, so we appreciate the European Union for this help.”

    On the allegations by Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose that using students of Federal University, Oye Ekiti would compromise the poll, Soyebi said: “I don’t need to join issues with them at this level, because that is the standard practice anywhere.

    “We want to draw them into the election to supplement the shortfall in the number of corps members to be used. We started this is 2011 and they have to be students and staff of federal universities”, he clarified.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof AbdulGaniy Raji, assured that INEC will be neutral in the conduct of the election which explained the decision to use workers and students of federal institutions.

    Raji said: “We needed 10,500 youth corps members and we have 6,500 in Ekiti as of now out which 1, 500 will be discharged by July 7.

    “With this, we need additional 5,500 staff and these we can only get through students and staff of federal schools. We are in the 6th week of training for them. They are being screened and trained to get the required skills.

    “It is a compulsory exercise and they have to participate”, the REC  stated. The Director of ECES, Mr David Le Notre, praised the INEC for taking a giant step to rebrand the country’s electoral system.”

     

  • Senate grills two INEC nominees

    THE Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday grilled two nominees, Mr. Festus Okoye and Mr. Garba Attahiru, for the positions of National Commissioner and Resident Electoral Commissioner.

    President Muhammadu Buhari on March 27 sent the names of Okoye  (from Imo to represent Southeast Zone) and Attahiru (Niger) to the Senate for confirmation.

    Following the grilling, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, hailed the committee for a job well done.

    He said the nominees responded to questions satisfactorily and that they would await the submission of the committee’s report to Senate and eventual confirmation.