Nigeria Senate Warns INEC Against Inconclusive Election In Anambra

 

                                 Mahmood Yakubu

Worried by familiar path of inconclusive elections that trail the Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Senate has warned against such in the November 18 Anambra State governorship elections.       

The Senate Committee on INEC gave the warning on Friday and urged the electoral body to ensure that the election was conclusive; as its credibility would foreshadow what 2019 general elections will be like.

The Senate committee chairman, Suleiman Nazif, made this appeal when he and other members of the committee met with INEC officials and political parties at the commission’s headquarters in Awka, Anambra State capital.

Nazif said, “I want the leadership of INEC to ensure that Anambra governorship election is conclusive, free, fair and credible.”

While stating that the Senate committee he led was in the state to find out the challenges facing INEC and to see how they can help in proffering solutions, he urged INEC to make sure that there was a level playing ground for all the political parties contesting the poll.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, in his speech during the meeting explained that the state was second in the country in terms of the collection of permanent voter’s cards, adding that collection of the cards in the area would end on November 15.

According to Orji, INEC had concluded arrangements to deploy one card reader per voting point and said that there would be field technical officers to take care of any challenge arising from the use of the card readers.

He then assured that INEC was committed to have a free, fair and credible election that will be acceptable by the people of the state.

Elections declared inconclusive under the current INEC include Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections, Rivers State National Assembly and state House of Assembly elections, which all had to go into reruns at a later date.