INEC fixes Sept. 10, Nov. 26 for Edo, Ondo governorship elections

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday said it had scheduled the Edo and Ondo governorship elections to hold on September 10 and November 26, 2016 respectively.

The Commission’s Deputy Director in charge of Publicity Affairs, Nick Dazang, made the disclosure while fielding questions during an interview in Abuja.

He said: “When the timetable for the elections is out, we will start the processes for budgeting and implementation for the elections,” Dazang said.

On the conduct of the re-run elections so far, he said: “The re-run elections we have had from January 27, 2016 had been peaceful except that challenge we had in Kogi, otherwise, generally it has been peaceful.

“Those of Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba and Niger states were peaceful.

“The only place we had challenges was Kogi Central in Adavi Local Council where our office was burnt down before the election. Fortunately, that did not affect the election in the area because by that time, we had not taken the sensitive materials to the office.

“In one of the wards in the same senatorial district, some hoodlums confiscated the result sheet and tore it.

“That was why as at that time we were unable to make a return of the election. But fortunately, we fell back on the duplicates, based on that, we were able to declare a winner.”

Dazang said that in Imo, the commission suspended one senatorial and three state House of Assembly elections based on security advice.

He said that people in the state were demonstrating and making all sorts of allegations against INEC members of staff but investigation by the commission revealed that the allegations were baseless.