INEC: Petrol price hike won’t affect conduct of Edo guber

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the recent petrol price hike will not affect its conduct of the September 21 governorship election in Edo state.

Speaking with journalists on Friday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, said the commission already met with officials of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) on the development.

“Well, first of all, I am aware that the commission, in the last couple of days, met with the officials of the NURTW to discuss this matter, and I’m sure the resolution was reached,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“Of course, when you are planning for election, you have what is called contingency, because you don’t know what can happen. There could be changes and all of that.

“So, we don’t expect transporters to operate at a loss. If oil has gone up, for instance, and they now want some increment, this could be discussed.

“Like I said, I wasn’t part of the meeting, but the meeting was held, and I’m sure some agreement was reached.

“We have to conduct that election. So, I don’t think that will cause some problems.”

Oyekanmi said electoral officers have been trained to ensure that the elderly, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and pregnant women get the necessary support to exercise their franchise.

“Normally, our presiding officers are trained that when they see anybody on the wheelchair or anyone regarded as PWD, the person comes straight to the front of the queue, and Nigerians cooperate with us on that,” he said.

“For instance, the elderly people, people on wheelchairs, people with special needs, and physically pregnant people, not people who put something in their tummy… we give them that respect.”

The CPS also said INEC had put measures in place to ensure that cases of prefilled result sheets witnessed in Kogi do not recur in Edo or future elections in the country.

“I can assure you that the Commission took active steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

“In fact, our result sheets cannot be forged because they are custom-made. They have security features and nobody knows what those security features will be.

“So, INEC has been able to perfect that aspect, that if you go ahead and print result sheets, you have just wasted your time, because you will not have access to what we have and you will not be able to make use of it.

“Again, our resource management process takes care of errant behaviour like that.”