INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega on Friday in Abuja called on political parties to settle their internal differences or risk not having candidates for April elections. Jega made the call at a forum organised by Democratic Governance for Development Project (DGD) in collaboration with INEC and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

Represented by Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu, Chief Technical Adviser to INEC Chairman, Jega said the commission would obey all court injunctions.

“ INEC will obey all court injunctions. Therefore,  if parties are not able to sort out their internal differences, then they run the risk of not having candidates for the elections,” he said.

Jega said this stance remained immutable, adding that INEC has its records of what happened during the primaries, “and we are going to apply the rules to the letter.”

He added that INEC would comply with the time schedule for the general elections in spite of problems within parties in terms of nomination of candidates.

According to him, INEC will exercise all its powers as enshrined in the constitution in the conduct of its activities.

The final list of candidates had yet to be compiled since Jan. 15 when the primaries were concluded.