INEC: We Won’t Shift Election Date Again

Going by the position expressed by National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Festus Okoye, the electoral body has corrected all logistic issues that led to the postponement of last Saturday election and is not prepared for further extension of the election date.

Okoye, who was a guest on THISDAY sister television station, ARISE News Morning Show yesterday, when asked if stakeholders collectively agree to extend the election day further, said: “No! We are going ahead with the election. We are ready for this election.”

Answering question on call by President Muhammadu Buhari to the military to deal ruthlessly with electoral offenders, and his statement that death awaits ballot box snatchers, Okoye said at the level of INEC, various issues relating to electoral offences, interference with electoral processes are handled within the framework of extant laws and the Electoral Act.

“Honestly, I cannot tell you by heart the exact section of the law or the exact penalties for various categories of offence, but on the issue of vote buying, there is nothing like vote buying in the Electoral Act. We call it inducement.

“There are various issues of electoral offences. There are issues related to interfering with the electoral process-interfering with electoral officers doing his or her work, trying to induce an electoral officer, negligent conduct by electoral officer and disruption of the electoral process-so it depends on the particular one the Electoral Act adduces in terms of electoral offences. But there are also some offences committed even within precinct of the polling unit that can be taken care of by the penal and the criminal codes. So, it depends on the specificity of the offence before you can make a determination of the penalty.”

Noting that as a public institution, INEC had made it a point of responsibility to adequately update Nigerians on the circumstances that led to the postponement of the February 16, 2019, presidential and National Assembly election, Okoye noted that “we have told Nigerians the truth and we never misrepresented anything about the issue.”