INEC on Edo governorship election: We will not be teleguided

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it “will not be teleguided” and will therefore continue with Saturday’s Edo state governorship election.

The status of the election was questioned on Wednesday when the department of state services (DSS) and the police urged the commission to “consider the need for possible postponement of the election in order to enable security agencies deal decisively with the envisaged terrorists threats”.

But the commission issued a statement on Thursday to say it was 97 percent ready for the election, and there was no going back.

“After carefully weighing all the consequences and parameters of postponing the Edo governorship election as advised yesterday by spokespersons of the Police and Directorate of State Security (DSS), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decided to go ahead with the conduct of the election as scheduled for Saturday, 10th September 2016,” read the statement, released by Nick Dazang.

Dazang said Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, the national commissioner in charge of voter education and publicity committee of INEC, had addressed journalists at the Edo state office of the commission this afternoon to express INEC’s determination to proceed with the election.

“Soyebi said that as at yesterday, the commission had reached not less than ninety seven per cent level of preparation for the conduct of the election,” read the statement.

“Except the actual conduct of the election, he explained that the Commission had scrupulously implemented all the items listed in the Timetable And Schedule of Activities for the EDO governorship election which it issued in March this year.”

Soyebi added that the commission would not be teleguided and that it would not do anything that would mortgage Nigeria’s democracy.

He further emphasised that INEC robustly considered the implications of demobilising, and arrived at the fact that it was more expensive to do so.

Godwin Obaseki, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Osagie Ize-Iyamu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are the frontrunners for the election.

The request of the security agencies had triggered strong reactions from the PDP, the opposition party, which accused APC of seeking postponement of the poll, “having seen the indices of losing the election to the PDP”.

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, also criticised the possible postponement, saying that “within two years of APC government, Nigeria is in both economic and political recession”.