CHAIRMAN of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
Professor Attahiru Jega, on Tuesday, arrived in Benin City, the Edo
State capital, with the assurance that the commission was ready to
conduct a free, fair and credible governorship election in the state on
Saturday.
Jega, who expressed the commission’s readiness while speaking with
journalists at the Benin airport, said he was in the state to ensure
that all the Commission’s plans were fine-tuned for the election and for
a meeting today with all stakeholders in the election in Benin City.
According
to him, “We are in Edo State in fulfillment of the promise that we made
to Nigerians in general and the people of Edo State in particular to
ensure [a] free, fair and credible election, we’ve been working day and
night and we’ve been doing our best to ensure that there is indeed free,
fair, peaceful and credible election in Edo State.
“Our mission
is clear. I am here to see the last-minute preparations before the
election on Saturday. I know we have done everything possible to ensure
that we have a free fair, credible and peaceful election; but I am here
to make sure that everything has been done as planned before the
election on Saturday and also to meet, of course, with the stakeholders.
“Of
course, we normally do that. Before elections, we meet with
stakeholders; we brief them about our last-minute preparations and if
they have any last-minute questions or complaints, we try to address
them.”
The INEC boss dismissed allegations by some civil society
organisations (CSOs) that the commission deliberately denied
accreditation to local observers for the election, saying: “We have done
everything possible as per the established rules and regulations to
properly accredit observers in Edo State. We have used the same
procedure we have used to accredit observers in all the elections we
have held in INEC. Since the April 2011 elections, we have applied that
criteria rigorously.
“We normally advertise and people are given
time within which to apply. Anybody who did not apply within the time
frame allocated will not be considered and that is what has happened in
this regard. We did not deliberately exclude anybody. Anybody who has
not been accredited to observe the Edo election and all other elections,
it is because they have not satisfied the requirements for
accreditation for the election.”
Jega further said: “We have had
stories being bandied about saying that we did not accredit any Edo
civil society [group] or organisation; that is false. We have accredited
many Edo-based civil society organisations but some did not meet the
requirement, either they did not apply in time or the criteria we set,
they did not meet it.
“Anybody who did not comply with those
criteria, we did not accredit. This is not the first time we are doing
it. We have done it in all previous elections; we only accredit people
who meet the criteria we have set for the election.”
Jega also
said the court judgment barring the commission from the use of the
collapsible transparent ballot boxes because of issues pertaining to
patent rights would not in any way affect the conduct of the
governorship election in the state.
“As far as we are concerned,
the judgment that has been passed does not affect our preparations for
the election in Edo State. The judgment was in respect of collapsible
election boxes, which are totally different from the ones we are using
for this election,” he added.
Meanwhile, INEC has deployed eight
National Commissioners and 10 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) to
Edo State for Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The REC in Edo State, Mr Kassim Gaidam, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin City, on Tuesday.
He added that new Electoral Officers (EOs) had been redeployed to take over from the old EOs ahead of the election.
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