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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has confirmed that Enugu East Senatorial district election has been postponed and will now hold with the March 11, governorship election after the killing of Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chukwu Oyibo.
Commission’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, made the disclosure at a world press conference in Abuja on Friday.
He also noted that the materials already delivered for the senatorial election will remain in the custody of the Central Bank in the State until the new date for election.
“The second issue is the unfortunate incident involving the candidate of the LP in Enugu State. I can confirm that we have now received a formal communication from the party informing the commission of the death of its candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District.
“The party also conveyed its intention to participate in the election for that constituency by replacing its deceased candidate. This request is in line with the provision of the law. For clarity, I wish to quote verbatim the provision of Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 as follows:
“If, after the time for the delivery of nomination paper and before the commencement of the poll, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief National Electoral Commissioner shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, countermand the poll in which the deceased candidate was to participate and the Commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election within 14 days,” he quoted the relevant section.
Reacting further, the electoral umpire boss said that: “the LP has provided satisfactory evidence of the death of its candidate. Consequently, the Commission has suspended the election in the senatorial district as provided by Law. We have already communicated this decision to our Enugu State office. Therefore, there will be no senatorial election in Enugu East Senatorial District made up of six Local Government Areas (LGAs), 77 Wards and 1,630 Polling Units.
“The election will now be combined with the governorship and State Assembly elections holding in the next two weeks on 11th March 2023. Materials already delivered for the senatorial election will remain in the custody of the Central Bank in the State until the new date for election,” he said.
Giving further update on its readiness for the poll, he said that; “we are glad about the progress we are making with the movement of materials to the various locations around the country. Having deployed these materials to the Local Government Areas.
“We are today devolving the deployment to the Registration Area Centers (RACs) so that early morning tomorrow the polls will open as planned. These RACs have been activated and election duty staff have started arriving in them,” he said.
On the threat for corps members to boycott the poll in some parts of Imo State, Yakubu said: “The commission is aware of the situation in Imo State in the South Eastern part of the country where it was reported that some of the critical polling unit officials drawn from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have withdrawn their participation from some LGAs as a result of the perennial insecurity.
“From the report we received from our State office, concerns have been expressed about the security situation in Osu Local Government Area, five Wards in Okigwe and six in Orlu. However, we have been assured that with enough mobilisation of security personnel to the area, it is possible for elections to hold in these locations.
“I have been in touch with the IGP who will brief us on their plans to secure these locations for elections to hold peacefully when he addresses us shortly. Generally speaking, the situation nationwide is calm as far as our preparations are concerned.
“There has been no incident involving the personnel or huge quantities of materials deployed by the Commission. Voter enthusiasm is high and so too is our determination to conduct credible elections.
“Tomorrow is Election Day. All campaigns, rallies, processions and media advertising by candidates for Presidential, Senatorial and Federal Constituencies for Presidential and National Assembly Elections ended at midnight Thursday.
“Voting begins at 8.30am and ends at 2.30pm tomorrow. However, any voter who is on the queue before 2.30pm will be allowed to vote even if voting goes beyond the official closing time. No voter will be disenfranchised.
“I wish all Nigerians a pleasant voting experience tomorrow. We have established a Situation Room here at the National Collation Centre. Our INEC Citizens’ Contact Centre (ICCC) is already up and running. Nigerians can contact us on our well published social media handles live and direct on Election Day,” he said.
