INEC Announces Dates For 2019 General Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has announced dates for 2019 general elections.

In a statement posted on its website Thursday, the electoral commission said it was making the announcements well ahead “in order to ensure certainty in our dates for elections, and to allow for proper planning by the Commission, political parties, security agencies, candidates and all stakeholders”.

“To that extent, the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, 16th February 2019, while the Governorship/State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory Area Council Elections will hold on Saturday 2nd March 2019.”

The commission also announced that 23 of its electoral officers being prosecuted for various electoral offences will be placed on half salary and will not report for duty pending the determination of their respective cases by the court.

Read the full statement:

Gentlemen of the Press,
You are all welcome to yet another briefing, which is in fulfillment of our pledge to regularly brief the public on the Commission’s activities.

1. Our democracy is maturing and the Commission believes that there should be certainty with regard to the timetable for elections. For instance, in the United States, general elections always hold on the second PRESS Tuesday of November in the election year. In Ghana, it’s the 7th of December of the election year, while in other places like Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Costa Rica and Switzerland, the dates are also known in advance.

In Nigeria, the constitution provides for elections to hold not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days to the end of the incumbent’s tenure. In order to ensure certainty in our dates for elections, and to allow for proper planning by the Commission, political parties, security agencies, candidates and all stakeholders, the Commission has decided to fix the date for the National Elections for the third Saturday in February of the election year, followed by State elections two weeks later. 

To that extent, the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, 16th February 2019, while the Governorship/State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory Area Council Elections will hold on Saturday 2nd March 2019.

2. The Commission has also received a Report from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation, informing us that 23 Electoral Officers indicted over the investigation into the 10th December Rivers Re-run elections have been charged to court. The Commission has repeatedly said that it will cooperate with security agencies for the prosecution of any of our staff found to have violated the integrity of the electoral process. 

Accordingly, at our meeting today, the Commission decided to apply the provisions of the INEC Terms and Conditions of Service to all those charged to court, since it constitutes gross misconduct. The penalty for this is interdiction. All the 23 Electoral Officers will be placed on half salary and will not report for duty pending the determination of their respective cases by the court.

3. Ladies and gentlemen, you will recall that last week, we informed you that a decision would be taken this week on the recommendation by the Disciplinary Committee on staff members indicted by the EFCC Report for misconduct during the 2015 General Elections. However, in view of the fact that some of the staff are also among those being prosecuted by the DPP, the Commission has decided to defer its decision on the EFCC Report to enable us reconcile the EFCC/DPP reports.

4. And as part of our routine consultations with our stakeholders, the Commission has decided to hold the next regular quarterly meetings with stakeholders as follows:

A. Tuesday 14th March – Meeting with Political Parties
B. Wednesday 15th March – Meeting with Civil Society Organizations
C. Friday 17th March – Meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
D. Monday March 21 – Meeting with Media organizations. Our invitations have been sent to the respective stakeholders
5. We wish to assure all Nigerians that the Commission will remain fully committed to the sanctity of the electoral process and will never protect any of its staff, no matter highly placed, found to have violated the provisions of the Electoral Act and our guidelines.

Prince Solomon Soyebi
National Commissioner 

(In charge of South West)

Rivers Rerun: Police Recovers Over N111m Bribe From Electoral Officials

The Nigerian Police on Tuesday said it recovered over one hundred and eleven million naira (N111 million) from electoral officials allegedly bribed by the Rivers state government during the December 10, 2015 rerun parliamentary elections in Rivers state.

According to the report by the IGP investigative panel tasked to investigate the violence during the election presented today, the money was recovered from 23 suspects who were allegedly bribed by the Rivers state government to rig elections.

The chairman of the panel, DCP Damian Okoro disclosed that," the sum total of N111,300,000 million was recovered from 23 INEC-ELECTORAL officers out of N360 million, of N15 million each, and three senior Electoral Officers were given N20 million each".

#OndoGuber: We Will Replace Jimoh Ibrahim With Jedege, INEC Speaks

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, today said factional governorship candidate of the PDP in the Saturday’s Ondo election, Jimoh Ibrahim will be replaced with Eyitayo Jegede.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of the commission, Rotimi Oyekannmi, said the electoral umpire will obey the ruling of the Appeal court which set aside the Justice Okon Abang’s ruling that ordered the initial replacement of Jegede’s name with Ibrahim,

According to Oyekanmi, the ruling of the appellate court should be served on the commission before Friday. 

Oyekanmi said, “Yes, the judgment as we followed, it shows that we must replace the name of Ibrahim with that of Jegede.

“We will obey the judgment because this is an order coming from a superior court. We will abide by that decision.

“However, we will expect that the judgment be served on us before Friday to enable us comply. When we are served, we will comply immediately.

“But we are not going to shift the date of the election. We have passed that stage. The election is going to hold on Saturday, November 24 as scheduled.”

Ogun Poll: APC Won All Chairmanship Seats

The Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGESIEC) has announced the results of the election held on Saturday (8^th of october, 2016) into the 20 local government councils and 37 Local Council Development Areas(LCDAs) of the state.

While declaring the results, the commission’s Chairman, Mrs Risikat Ogunfemi, said the ruling APC won all the Chairmanship positions in all the 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs.

The party also won 346 councillorship seats out of the 349 wards in the state.

The Unity Party of Nigeria, however, won two councillorship seats while the PDP won one.

ALERT: OGSIEC Connived With APC Ogun State to rig 2016 Ogun State Local Government Elections

Following an uproar made by the Chairman Unity Party of Nigeria UPN Ogun State chapter, Hon. Iredee Oginni stated that yesterday, the Ogun State APC chapter alongside Ogun State Government went ahead to Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission office to collect voters card of the electorates.

She also said accreditation which supposed to hold tomorrow has been cancelled and nullified, that people from Ondo State and other part of Nigeria has already been deployed to vote on behalf of the good people of Ogun State.

She said that OGSIEC in line with Ogun State Government has approved that both Permanent Voter's Card and Temporary voters card should be used in voting come Saturday.

Iredee Oginni described this act as a purported plan to rob the good people of Ogun State their golden mandate of choosing the leaders of their own.
She further described the act as malicious and evil.

"I am calling on the concerned parastatals, security operatives, monitoring agencies, external observers and the men of the press to drastically look into the isvvsue as she will not hesitate to let the law prevail" she said.

EdoDecides2016: Abdulmutallab, Nigerian US Bomber Reportedly Appears on Edo State Voters' Register

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was jailed in the United States in 2012 for terrorism offences has reportedly appeared on the voters’ register in Edo state.

 

In as much as the story appears like a hoax, it has caused quite a stir in Edo State as the All Progressives Congress and People's Democratic Party slug it out in a keenly contested electoral process.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole drew attention to the existence of AbdulMuttalab’s portrait in a fake voters register now in circulation, according to NAN.

Oshiomhole spoke about AbdulMutallab during a visit to him by the United States Consul General in Lagos, Mr F John Bray.

The Edo governor said he was shocked to see the portrait of the “underwear bomber” in the fake register, but with a Benin name. This has pictured as a ploy by some unscrupulous politicians to rig the election.

Abdulmutallab was convicted of attempting on December 25, 2009. to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear on board an airline from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan.

Governor Oshiomhole who raised concern about the duplication of the voter’s register by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said “the foundation for credible election is the voter’s register. Once the voter’s register is manipulated, then you have problems.

“Right now, we have evidence of two versions of voter’s register – the one they have officially distributed and the one that some elements within the ICT in INEC have also produced in Abuja.

“And what they have done in the past, which we hear they want to re-enact again, is that whereas they will display one voter’s register which is reasonably accurate, there are still some flaws but let me say it is about 85 percent accurate, they also have a fake one which they intend to bring and spring a surprise in certain locations where they believe that they have no chance, and when the voters go there and you find a voter’s register different from the one that you know, there will be confusion in those voting centres.

“At the end, you may end up having people’s voice level going up and one thing leading to the other, and you could have violence. We will show you those samples between the one that we know and the one we have gotten through our intelligence and I want to give a copy to the embassy, and so you can study it and see it. That, for me, is the only thing I am worried about.

“If the INEC has two versions of voters register and they display one officially, then we have a problem. And the reason why this is extremely worrisome for me is that in my election in 2012, INEC tried to use this method to disenfranchise many of our supporters.”

“For example, I was shocked to find the portrait of Mr Abdulmutalab, and that will interest your Excellency, the young man who has been jailed in the US for a terrorist act. His portrait is in the fake voter’s register with a Benin name under it. I am sure if you look at the face, if we don’t know the face, you the US officials know the face. And you find the name under it, that it is a Benin name in Ovia South West.”

“He said INEC has enlisted some members of the opposition as election observers. “Last night, in my local government, one of the PDP leaders, who incidentally is on the list of INEC observers, I can be very specific, one Tenebe. we have information that he got boys around and they were shooting but the police went to apprehend them; they engaged the police in a shooting.

“The police had to go and reinforce. As we speak, I don’t have information as to how that was settled. If you have people like this engaged in violence, then it poses a challenge.”

“Unfortunately, it takes more than one hand in this case to achieve a free and fair election. All the political parties must be committed to putting away this thing."

Ondo Poll: Akeredolu's Name Submitted to INEC

Rotimi Akeredolu

The All Progressive Congress, APC, has submitted Rotimi Akeredolu’s name to the Independent National Election Commission, INEC ahead of their coming governorship election

Akeredolu’s name was submitted to INEC by the National Organising Secretary of the APC, Senator Osita Izunaso.

 The submission was done after the National Chairman of the APC and the National Secretary, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Mai Mala Buni, had endorsed the INEC form for the purpose..

INEC, had on Tuesday, released a list of 30 political parties to participate in the Ondo Election.

Edo Elections: APC Foresaw Defeat, Says PDP Chieftain

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the Plateau and former member of the National Assembly, Hon George Daika, has described the postponement of the Edo State gubernatorial elections earlier slated for this Saturday under the guise of security challenge as a clear sign that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) is jittery having foreseen defeat ahead of it in the elections.

He said the postponement was to give the APC another chance to perfect its plans to rig the polls, but warned that Nigerians are watching and would not accept any manipulation from a government that has woefully failed Nigerians since it assumed office.

Addressing journalists in Jos on Friday, he described the advice by the Police and the DSS for the postponement, the initial refusal by the INEC to accept the postponement, the insistence by Adams Oshiomhole and the eventual consent by the INEC as orchestrations of the APC to make people believe that there’s any truth in them, adding that Nigerians are wiser than that.


“As at Thursday afternoon, INEC was in a meeting with the security agencies, and after the meeting the commission insisted that the election would go ahead. And later the same day, INEC turned round to say it was postponed; who is fooling who?”, Daika queried.

Edo Governorship Postponement: We will pay 19,000 staff over again – INEC Explains

The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclosed that it will make fresh payments to 19,000 staff as a result of the postponement of the Edo State governorship election.

Nick Dazang, the commission’s Deputy Director for voter education and publicity, disclosed this on Friday.

He said INEC had already confirmed its readiness for the election, and only the last stage of preparation was left at the time the security agencies advised it to shift the poll.

“We are calling back about 19,000 staff, we have to pay them again and we might consider retraining them ahead of election, so that they will remember some of the things that we have taught them. That is money,” he said.

“We have to pay them for the allowances. We have to pay them allowances for coming back to conduct the election.

“We might have to reprint one or two of the sensitive materials to reflect the new date. Thankfully, as of the time our attention was called to the advisory, we had not distributed some of the materials.”

He said the development would not in any way affect the conduct of the election, as the commission always made provision for such contingency.

“The postponement of the election did not in any way change our preparedness for the election, neither has it changed our resolve to conduct free, fair and credible election,” he said.

Dazang added that the commission would continue to engage with the security agencies to ensure that the election is peaceful on the rescheduled date