The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended election in Enugu East Senatorial District scheduled along with the Presidential and National Assembly holding Saturday.
The election will now hold along Governorship and State House of Assembly elections fixed on March 11, 2023.
Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman who made this known at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday said, ugly development was sequel to the death of Oyibo Chukwu, the Labour Party (LP) senatorial candidate for the district.
Chukwu died on Wednesday when hoodlums allegedly attacked him and set his vehicle ablaze in the Eke-Otu Amechi-Awkunanaw area of Enugu.
Yakubu said Labour Party has officially and evidentially notified the commission about the death and its intention to participate in the election for that constituency by replacing its deceased candidate.
He said: “I can confirm that we have now received a formal communication from the party informing the commission of the death of its candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District. The party also conveyed its intention to participate in the election for that constituency by replacing its deceased candidate.
“This request is in line with the provision of the law. For clarity, I wish to quote verbatim the provision of Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 as follows:
“If, after the time for the delivery of nomination paper and before the commencement of the poll, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief National Electoral Commissioner shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, countermand the poll in which the deceased candidate was to participate and the Commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election within 14 days.
“The Labour Party has provided satisfactory evidence of the death of its candidate. Consequently, the Commission has suspended the election in the senatorial district as provided by Law. We have already communicated this decision to our Enugu State office.
“Therefore, there will be no senatorial election in Enugu East Senatorial District made up of six Local Government Areas, 77 Wards and 1,630 Polling Units.
“The election will now be combined with the Governorship and State Assembly elections holding in the next two weeks on 11th March 2023. Materials already delivered for the senatorial election will remain in the custody of the Central Bank in the State until the new date for election.”
Yakubu however said, apart from Enugu East, INEC was set to conduct the general election nationwide apart, expressing satisfaction over the progress made with the movement of materials to the various locations around the country.
“Having deployed these materials to the Local Government Areas, we are today devolving the deployment to the Registration Area Centers (RACs) so that early morning tomorrow the polls will open as planned. These RACs have been activated and election duty staff have started arriving in them,” he said.
According to the chairman, the commission was aware of the situation in Imo State where it was reported that some of the critical polling unit officials drawn from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have withdrawn their participation from some Local Government Areas as a result of the perennial insecurity.
He said from the report received from INEC State office in Imo, concerns have been expressed about the security situation in Osu Local Government Area, five Wards in Okigwe and six in Orlu.
Yakubu said the commission has been assured that with enough mobilisation of security personnel to the area, it is possible for elections to hold in these locations, adding that he has been in touch with Usman Alkali-Baba, the Inspector General of Police on the plans to secure those locations for elections to hold peacefully.
“Generally speaking, the situation nationwide is calm as far as our preparations are concerned. There has been no incident involving the personnel or huge quantities of materials deployed by the Commission. Voter enthusiasm is high and so too is our determination to conduct credible elections.
“Tomorrow is Election Day. All campaigns, rallies, processions and media advertising by candidates for Presidential, Senatorial and Federal Constituencies for Presidential and National Assembly Elections ended at midnight yesterday.
“Voting begins at 8.30am and ends at 2.30pm tomorrow. However, any voter who is on the queue before 2.30pm will be allowed to vote even if voting goes beyond the official closing time. No voter will be disenfranchised.
“I wish all Nigerians a pleasant voting experience tomorrow. We have established a Situation Room here at the National Collation Centre.
“Our INEC Citizens’ Contact Centre (ICCC) is already up and running. Nigerians can contact us on our well published social media handles live and direct on election day, Yakubu stated.
He said INEC is working with the major network service providers such as MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9Mobile whose team would be deployed to the national situation room and in all states of the federation to address any hitch that may arise during the polls.
Yakubu said the commission has also taken sufficient steps to fortify and protect its systems and processes against malicious attacks, adding that it has vast experience in election results transmission via the iREV while the BVAS requires online process only at the point of polling unit uploading.
“We have taken sufficient steps to fortify and protect our systems and processes. I must also say we are leaving certain things when it comes to cyber security to ourselves because the walls have ears but Nigerians should be rest assured that we are aware that our resources may be susceptible to attacks but we have taken measures, he said.
“We have tremendous experience in transmitting results real time in Nigeria. We successfully transmitted results for 105 constituencies nationwide. Please be rest assured that we are aware of the challenges and we have capacity within the commission to be able to respond to the challenges.
“After all, the BVAS is not an electronic voting machine it will not operate online on election day. It is completely offline. Where we need a little bit of internet connectivity is when we transmit results from the Polling Unit and we are on top of the game.”
On the issue of the omission of omitting the Labour Party logo on House of Representatives ballot papers in Lagos, said, the INEC chairman said: “the commission has a record of obedience to court orders.
“So, we have already tasked our legal office to look at all the judgements we have been receiving and they have been coming virtually everyday.
“The party you are talking about in one day alone served on INEC 70 processes on the nomination of candidates and in Lagos, on Federal Constituencies alone, we accepted the nomination of candidates for 13 out of 24 Federal Constituencies from that party by court order. So we will look at the court order and respond accordingly.”
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Also speaking, the Inspector General of Police, Alkali-Baba said 425,106 security operatives will be deployed for the elections to ensure secured electoral process.
The IGP who said the figure is exclusive of members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, stated that the personnel were drawn from the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Others are from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigerian Correctional Service, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigeria Immigration Service.
He said “in the Police we have 310,973, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence – 51,000; Federal Road Safety Corps – 21,000; Nigerian Correctional Service – 11,336; National Drug Law Enforcement Agency – 9,447; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission – 350; Nigeria Immigration Service – 21,000.”
Alkali-Baba also said orderlies attached to Very Important Personalities (VIPs) will be withdrawn during the polls and even if they escorted them to the voting centres, they should stay at a distance for the VIP to cast their votes before escorting them back.
“Just like in any other election, we expect our VIPs to drop their bodyguards/orderlies that are armed in escorting them to the polling stations. Even if they escort them, they should stop or stay at a distance so that the person can cast his votes and leave with his aides,” he said.
“We do not expect our men in the polling units. We have told our officers to comply. Those of them with the VIPs have also been communicated through our medium of communication.”
