INEC cautions parties on responsible electioneering in Anambra

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has advised political parties featuring in the Anambra State governorship election on November 6 to carry out responsible campaigns.

The Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye, gave the advice, yesterday, when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Okoye urged political parties to carry out responsible campaigns in consonance with safety regulations, while considering the security situation in the country. He advised them to seek clarification from the commission on matters of national security.

According to him, INEC is working hard to deliver on its mandate of ensuring credible governorship election in Anambra. Urging stakeholders to cooperate with the electoral umpire, the INEC commissioner described the conduct and delivery of a good election as a multi stakeholders’ venture.

“The commission is working assiduously to get its facilities and processes ready for the election. It has completed the first phase of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in Anambra, wherein it devolved to the 326
Registration Areas (RAs), 21 local council offices and the state office.

“It is finalising arrangements to deploy its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to Anambra, and various enlightenment and voter education programmes are ongoing in the state. It is moving fast to rebuild its Anambra collation centre, storage facilities and office buildings as well as facilities damaged by arsonists,” Okoye added.

He recalled that INEC had informed Nigerians that prior to the attack on its facilities, it had delivered over 50 per cent of the non-sensitive materials required for the conduct of the election to the Anambra office.

Noting that all the materials already delivered, including 326 generating sets retrieved from all the RAs and seven utility vehicles meant for electoral operations, were destroyed by attackers, he added: “We are encouraged that contractors are now working day and night to get the facilities ready for the election.”

Disclosing that INEC would batch and distribute all non-sensitive materials from its Anambra office, he added that the sensitive materials would be delivered direct to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) office in Awka.

“All the political parties participating in the election will be invited to inspect the materials before distribution,” Okoye said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had on Sunday, September 12, rejected the reported move by INEC to use its facility in Owerri for the storage of electoral materials for the Anambra election.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, urged INEC to react to the allegation by Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra that it planned to recruit Returning Officers (ROs) for the election from Imo. Ologbondiyan said that if INEC, for any reason, desired to keep the election materials in another state than Anambra, the best choice was Enugu.