INEC chairman should be worried, says Fayose

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ought to be worried over the spate of inconclusive elections conducted in the past year.

Reacting to the postponement of the Rivers state rerun elections and the alleged irregularity recorded in the Imo north senatorial election, Fayose wondered how INEC would be able to conduct polls in 36 states during the next general elections.

In a statement issued on Tuesday by Lere Olayinka, his special assistant on public communications and new media, the governor said, “democracy in Nigeria is being threatened by INEC”.

“Lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the entire world should be worried that after conducting inconclusive elections in Rivers state in March this year, INEC postponed the rescheduled elections twice,” the statement read.

“The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, should also be worried if there would have been an INEC to head if the 2015 elections had been inconclusive.

“INEC had on June 20, after a meeting with relevant stakeholders, fixed June 30 as the new date for the conclusion of the poll.

“However, the electoral commission postponed the elections for the second time, claiming reports of violence, and one wonders how INEC will be able to conduct elections in 36 states and the federal capital territory in 2019 if it has not been able to conclude elections in Rivers state in four months!”

Fayose also noted that election irregularities, such as “violence, ballot snatching and electoral fraud” have re-emerged under the present government.

“Nigerians had thought issues of violence, ballot snatching and electoral fraud had been put behind them only for them to be brought back frontally by the Buhari’s government.

“President Buhari should ask himself if he would have been elected if the system then did not allow free and fair elections.”