THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said any Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member in Ogun State campaigning for an elective position without being on the candidates’ list released by the electoral umpire “is on his or her own” as the body has nothing to do with such.
Mr Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner for Information, Media and Voter Education, said this while featuring on Citizens’ Forum, a programme aired by the Rock City 101.9 FM, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu, a member of the House of Representatives and some of his supporters have been campaigning for various offices despite not making the list of candidates released by INEC.
Adebutu has been at loggerheads with Senator Buruji Kashamu, PDP’s governorship candidate in Ogun State, over the governorship ticket.
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According to Okoye, only members of the PDP whose names were on the list released by INEC were the genuine candidates of the party, adding that others were mere pretenders.
Okoye said, “Our position is that the INEC received judgments of properly constituted courts of law and we have given effect to the judgments that we have. The judgments that we have asked the INEC to recognize the list of candidates submitted by a particular faction of the PDP in Ogun State. We have recognized the candidates submitted by that particular political party and we have published the names of those candidates recognized by the court.
So, it is the names of those candidates that have been published. Any other individual, outside that particular list, who is campaigning for any position whatsoever, is on his or her own. The INEC has nothing to do with that. We have obeyed the law. We have published the list of candidates that we were asked to publish based on court order and we have done what the law requires us to do.”
Okoye also said that INEC was doing all within its powers to prevent vote buying during the elections.
According to him, “The INEC has intelligence that as we are working assiduously to prevent the phenomenon of vote buying, politicians and political parties are working assiduously at devising new mechanisms on how to corrupt the electoral system and subvert the will of the people. We are going to put up new measures to address this issue.
“My advice is that those who want to violate the law and those who want to change the will of the Nigerian people can continue with what they are doing. But on election day, the INEC will work with security agencies to make sure that anybody who tries to corrupt the electoral process or who attempts to violate the will of the people is apprehended and prosecuted. My advice to political parties and candidates that want to subvert the will of the people is that they should be very careful because INEC and all the security agencies will be on the watch out for anyone who wants to violate the law.”
The INEC National Commissioner said the general election would witness a larger voter turnout than the 2015 elections.
He said, “We expect a larger voter turnout based on various variables.
“One, we have registered over 80 million voters for this particular election. Second, the simultaneous accreditation and voting will afford Nigerian people the opportunity of voting without any disruption or delay. Third, we expect the political parties to mobilize electorate for them to come out to cast their votes. We expect a higher voter turnout in this election than we had in the previous election.”
COALITION TO NOWHERE: “Mrs. Ezekwesili said her decision to step down was in a bid to help build a coalition viable of defeating the All Progressive Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party in the coming election”. Impact is actually made when it shakes the critical xylem, existence, pillars and the actual motif of an existence. When people who have no meaningful set-up and control of a structure say they are coalescing to bring down structures incomprehensible to their cranial capacities, it looks like an ant thinking of waging a wrestle with an elephant. From all variables I did not comprehend it when it was said that Mrs. Ezekwesili stepped down for the purpose of bringing the mega parties let alone a thought of the super mega party; that will unseat the all Progressives Congress – The PDP. – incomprehensible. What I was expecting was that Mrs. Ezekwesili was stepping down to join the fast moving train that is moving like the meteor to make Nigeria work again and there bargain for her stead. I expected this respected woman of “bring back Our Girls” to pitch camp with her brother Obi to refashion the fate of her people, like Ruth. I expected her to say that she was retiring to give Biafrans a voice in the governance before the referendum. I thought she was stepping down to join the bandwagon, so that she will have the voice she failed to have in the APC after they failed to recognize her potentials in their administration of failure and hunger. I thought that she was coalescing to a realistic fundamental than a coalition to nowhere. Nnemoma, the days of infant David killing Goliath with a string was when God was too close to man for the Israelites. Moreover, the timing is late now. You may not conjecture in that fashion and aspiration in this election, that requires empirical balances. Remember, it is a rocket science for the Atiku made up minds of the northern “simples” with not too much bookish turenchi to comprehend the arithmetic and algebraic theories you pose now, nor is it comprehensible to the Onitsha traders that you want to unseat Obi, their educated colleague in Ochanja. The best you can do now for your benefit and the benefit of the majority is to coalesce with Atiku/Obi for the good of all, than forming a coalition to nowhere. Think now like a wise Igbo woman and announce it now. I respect you a lot. ARUNA AGWU, RUO MMA, NNEM. God bless Nigeria.
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Something must be wrong with this chairman of INEC head are you the owner of there party the NWC said Adebutu is there candidate and you are saying rubbish you better do normal or else you will find margot in surlt