INEC meets as political parties vow to reopen campaign

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed a meeting for Monday to review the ban on electioneering during the one week extension of poll.

This follows the insistence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to resume campaign.

The parties ended campaigns on Thursday ahead  of the national assembly and presidential elections scheduled for Saturday.

Citing logistics challenge, INEC extended elections by a week but said campaign was over. However, the two leading parties argued that the commission’s restriction has no basis in law.

In his reaction, Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary (CPS) to the INEC chairman, said the commission has decided to review the restriction.

The opposition party had urged the electoral body to rescind its decision on the suspension of campaigns, a position backed by Festus Keyamo, spokesman of the ruling party’s presidential campaign council.

Keyamo described as illegal, the decision of INEC not to allow political parties to engage in further campaigns, despite the postponement of the presidential election and national assembly elections.