INEC Chairman: No Soldiers for Ekiti Election

Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has ruled out use of soldiers by the Commission in the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State.

 

Speaking to journalists in Lagos on Saturday night, Yakubu said: “As far as INEC is concerned, only the police will be deployed at Ekiti for the election”.

 

INEC CHAIRMAN 

 

 

The INEC chairman, who assured Nigerians that the forthcoming election in Ekiti would be a marked improvement on the last governorship poll it conducted in 2017 in Anambra State, said, as part of the preparation for Ekiti poll, his Commission had moved all non-sensitive electoral materials into the state.

 

Appealing to Nigerians that had registered in the ongoing continuous registration exercise to go pick up their PVCs, the INEC chairmen the lamented that of the over 7 million unclaimed cards from the 2015 elections, only a paltry 500,000 of the card had been collected as June 14 this year.

 

“There are 7m uncollected PVCs from the previous election and since 2015, only a little over 500,000 have been collected”.

 

Yakubu, who spoke on a wide range of issues, including the commission’s interdicted staff members, the controversial Kano state local government poll, voter-education, the continuous voters registration exercise, among others, appealed to Nigerians to report any of its staff demanding for money for collection of PVCs.

 

Meanwhile, Mr Mansur Liman, the Director-General, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), has advised media professionals and media organisations to support the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the success of general elections in 2019.

 

Liman gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos at the ongoing INEC “Retreat on Media/Public Relations and Public Speaking Techniques’’.

 

He said that INEC could not achieve successful elections without the necessary support of the media in terms of giving objective, accurate and effective reports on electoral activities.

 

“Information is very vital and the role that the media is going to play in the next general elections is as important as what INEC is doing, because people need to get the right information for the process to be successful.

 

“When you talk of free and fair elections, it is not just about what the INEC does, it is also about what the media report.

 

“If the media is not reporting what INEC is doing, it will make the process to look as not being free and fair.

 

“But if the media is reporting exactly what INEC is doing, it will make the process look as being free and fair.

 

“Another thing is that the media has to be conscious of not over blowing issues, so, the media has to be very responsible in reporting events for a successful conduct of the 2019 general elections,’’ he said.

 

Liman also enjoyed journalists and media houses to be guided by the code for election coverage and the National Broadcasting Commission Code.

 

“We should report what is happening as accurately as possible without taking side because the nation is for all of us nobody wants to destroy it,’’ he said.

 

He expressed optimism that the workshop would help INEC to build the necessary relationship with the media toward ensuring successful elections in 2019.