ADHERE STRICTLY TO ALL DATES IN THE TIMETABLE- INEC
Oru Leonard
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has urged political parties to adhere strictly to all dates in the Timetable, including the nomination of their candidates via the INEC web portal.
Yakubu said this while addressing Journalists at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja on the on-going voter registration excercise.
He stated, “The Commission wishes to reiterate that the dates for all activities in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election, including the conduct of party primaries, are firm and fixed.
“Already, ten political parties have served notices to the Commission for the conduct of their primaries. With 52 days to the last day for the conduct of primaries (i.e. 3rd June 2022), political parties are once again admonished to adhere strictly to all dates in the Timetable, including the nomination of their candidates via the INEC web portal.
“Such nominated candidates must emerge from valid primaries as provided in Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“This is necessary to avoid the unhappy consequences of any breach of the Commission’s Timetable or the Electoral Act”.
On the on-going voter registration excercise, Yakubu who disclosed that the owners of the 1.8 million new PVCs will be contacted via email and telephone called on Nigerians who registered between June and December 2021 to come forward to collect their PVCs which will be available for collection at designated places.
“I would like to appeal to all Nigerians who registered between June and December 2021 to collect their PVCs in person.
‘As we devolve the voter registration beyond our State and Local Government offices nationwide, the PVCs will also be available at such designated centres in our effort to make the collection easier for voters.
“In addition, we will also contact the 1.8 million registrants including by email and text messages on the availability of the cards and the places to collect them”.
Yakubu also disclosed that a huge number of registrations across Nigeria are invalid due to many infractions perpetuated by registrants which includes act of double registration.
“These invalid registrations will not be included in the Register of Voters. In our commitment to transparency, the distribution of the registration figures, including the percentages of valid and invalid registrations on State-by-State basis, will be made available to you at this press conference.
“The same information will be uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms immediately”, the INEC boss stated.
Professor Mahmood further noted that the development is worrisome because of the time and resources expended in handling these cases. Even more disturbing are the strong indications that some of our staff may be complicit in facilitating these infractions, notwithstanding stern warnings.
“Consequently, the Commission is reviewing reports on such staff and has commenced a detailed investigation which may include the prosecution of those found culpable. Specific registrants associated with these infractions by our staff may also face prosecution in line with Sections 22 and 23 of the Electoral Act 2022” he concluded.
