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Some members of the House of Representatives have expressed their displeasure over INEC fears that the 2023 general elections may be postpone due to the threat of insecurity across the country.
The lawmakers who reacted separately accused the electoral umpire of deliberately diverting public attention from its failures. They described the announcement as “irresponsible”.
The Reps who expressed their disappointment over the report yesterday include: Sergius Ogun representing Esan North East/Esan South East Federal constituency of Edo State and Kingsley Chinda, representing Obior/Akpor federal constituency of Rivers State.
Ogun accused INEC of deliberately diverting attention from its inability to properly conduct the collection of the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) with the statement, counselling the electoral umpire to table its security concerns to the federal government.
He said: “They should come out and tell us what they know that the rest of us don’t know. It’s very irresponsible of INEC to be making statements like this at a time they should be working towards delivering credible polls in February and March.
“INEC might be trying to deflect attention from their inability to properly handle the collection of PVCs as there are complaints by Nigerians who registered and are not able to collect their PVCs as the expiration date for collection is just a couple of weeks away, if they have any serious security concerns, they should take it to the government.
“Let the government tell Nigerians that they have failed to provide security for all hence the election might not hold, it’s not the responsibility of INEC to provide security for its staff, election materials and citizens (voters) but the government. Section 14. 2(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.
On his part, Chinda said INEC couldn’t have made such a statement having had ample time to prepare for the elections. His word: “I doubt the statement is from INEC. If it is, I would say that it amounts to rascality and irresponsibility for INEC to say so, having had time to prepare for the election.”
