You’ll swear to oath of neutrality, INEC tells police, others

…says 244,000 PVCs still uncollected in Delta

Delta State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Independent National Election Commission (INEC), Mr. Monday Udoh Tom, has told the police and other security agencies that they will swear to an oath of neutrality before election duties.

The Commission also disclosed that over 244,000 permanent voter cards (PVCs) are yet to be collected in the state.

Tom made this known, yesterday, at a one-day stakeholders security summit organised by Delta State Police Command in collaboration with INEC, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and Foundation for Human and Environmental Rights Protection.

The electoral commissioner, who spoke through the Head of the Legal Services Department, Mrs. Angela Ebhodaghe, stated that 69,000 PVCs were received between June and December 2021, while 2,000 were transferred between June and December 2021.

According to Tom, the commission has, so far, implemented nine of the 14 items in its agenda, which includes the release of the final list of governorship and state Houses of Assembly candidates.

He asked politicians and other stakeholders to always comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 at every stage of the electoral process.

“The Commission, therefore, expects the campaigns to be guided by strict adherence to provisions of Electoral Act 2022, particularly Section 91(1), which provides that the Commissioner of Police of each state shall provide adequate security for the proper and peaceful conduct of political rallies, processions in their respective jurisdictions and for this purpose, the police may be supported by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and any other security agencies of the Federal Government.

“Also note that Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2022 requires that the Oath of Neutrality by election officials is now to be administered to election security officials by INEC and failure to do so is an offence. That means planning on the part of heads of security agencies on how best to achieve this, before election day, as Subsection 2 makes failure to do so an offence,” Tom said.

Speaking at the summit, the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Ari Mohammed Alli, warned political leaders and youths to be properly guided or face prosecution.

The coordinator, TMG, Edewor Egedegbe, said culprits of electoral violence should be prosecuted and punished appropriately.