Election postponement: Sen. Abe says INEC owes Nigerians more explanation

Sen. Magnus Abe, (APC- Rivers South East) on Saturday said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) owed Nigerians a detailed explanations on its decision to postpone the Feb. 16 elections.

Abe said this in an interview with Newsmen in Port Harcourt while reacting to the decision of the electoral commission to shift the national polls.

The News Aggency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the INEC late on Friday postponed the Presidential and National Assembly general polls slated to hold on the Feb. 16 to Feb.23.It also shifted the governorship and state Assembly elections from March 2 to March 9, citing logistics problems for the postponements.

“Election should be free, fair and credible and it has become clear to INEC that with the logistic challenges they are facing it will be impossible to hold the elections.

“I think INEC has done the right thing to postponed the elections and to enable it to prepare better.“But I believe that INEC owes Nigerians a clear explanation to why the country would have to be subjected to this kind of challenge.

“The personal plans, financial fallout’s of this kind of decision are going to affect things in a whole lot.“They (INEC officials) owe Nigerians a more detailed explanation about why this has to be done at this time,” he said.

Abe, however, urged all Nigerians to remain steadfast in their belief in the country.“I believe there,is going to be a lot of positive development toward the postponement because it gives everybody time to prepare better.

“I also use this opportunity to urge the Court of Appeal to immediately use this window to finish the outstanding issues in Rivers State so that we have a clearer idea of what exactly the situation in our state would be moving forward,” Abe said.