Politics

Edo, Ondo guber: INEC begins review of security deployments , tasks parties on credible primaries

By Ezeocha Nzeh

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), disclosed at the weekend that it has commenced the review of the method of deployment of security officials for election duties

INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed while declaring open its first 2020 quarterly meeting with Resident Electoral Commission that INEC will commence the process with a meeting with a review committee on Wenesday, ahead of the upcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states

“Ahead of the Edo and Ondo Governorship elections, critical changes will be introduced to strengthen our processes and procedures.

“Similarly, the Commission, jointly with the security agencies, is reviewing deployment during elections. Already, the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) has set up a Committee in this respect. The inaugural meeting of the Committee is holding on Wednesday next week week.” Yakubu disclosed

The INEC boss also warned political poarties participating in the elections to ensure that they conduct credible primaries to nominate their candidates to avoid litigations which has marred the electoral process

“Given recent experience with some governorship elections, political parties need to do more to avoid the conduct of acrimonious primaries or failure to observe due diligence in the screening of their candidates, resulting in protracted litigations and eventual determination of the outcome of elections by orders of court.

“I wish to draw the attention of political parties to two critical dates in the timetable released by the commission a few weeks ago. Party primaries for the democratic election and nomination of candidates for the governorship election in Edo State must be held from June 2 to 27, 2020. The date for Ondo State is July 2 to 25, 2020.

“The commission will not extend the dates. We will also rigorously monitor the primaries and where necessary, apply sanctions as provided by law.

“We will continue to keep an eye on the conduct of our officials and apply appropriate sanctions on erring staff, both regular and ad-hoc.”

Related Posts

Leave a Comment

This News Site uses cookies to improve reading experience. We assume this is OK but if not, please do opt-out. Accept Read More