By Jimitota Onoyume, Ikechukwu Nnochiri & Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA — The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday, said elections would continue to be inconclusive in the country because of the need to account for every polling units.

The commission also said it had evolved a “Road map” that would ensure a smooth conduct of impending governorship election in Edo State.

Besides, following last Friday’s razing of the office of the INEC in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, the commission also  postponed the conduct of national and state legislative re-run elections in the state.

This is even as Rivers State government called for dissolution of INEC under the leadership of Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

But INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who spoke at a dialogue session between the electoral body and over 60 civil society groups involved in election monitoring, insisted that politicians should be blamed for the recurring cases of inconclusive elections in the country.

According to Prof. Yakubu, who was represented at the event by INEC National Commissioner, Mrs. Amina Zakari, “the concept of inconclusive election is that every polling unit must be accounted for.”

He said elections in Nigeria had become “too tight and keenly contested,” such that the commission could no longer declare anybody winner when result from even a single polling unit was cancelled.

“It is most regrettable that aside sponsoring violence, ballot-snatching, mutilation of election results and other vices, politician are also trying to take over election in the field.

“The politician and their agents will not allow us to collate appropriately. They are very calculating when they want to force a result on you.

“Sometimes, miscreants try to force our ad-hoc staff to add votes for their candidate, which usually occasion over-voting and eventual cancellation of result from such polling unit. This is one of the factors that lead to inconclusive elections.  It is a general societal issue that we need to discuss openly.”

Expresses worry over campaign speeches, security in Edo

Similarly, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Edo State, Mr. Sam Olumekan, expressed concerns over what he termed “abusive campaign speeches” by major candidates for the governorship election billed to hold in the state on September 10.

He said the commission had already summoned all the candidates to a crucial meeting, with a view to ensuring that they refrain from making statements capable of inciting electoral violence in the state.

He said: “No matter the extent of our readiness, if there are serious security concerns, the successful conduct of free, fair, credible and peaceful governorship election in Edo State on Saturday, September 10, 2016, would be jeopardised.

“To guarantee successful conduct of the election, there are many other things that need to be done by other stakeholders, notably security agencies, candidates, political parties, voters, parties agents, government institutions, the media, etc, which are outside the control of INEC.”

He said INEC duly monitored primaries conducted by 19 political parties to select their governorship candidates.

“We have compiled flashpoints for security agencies to monitor to forestall election violence during the governorship poll. Despite the intervention of security agencies, there were reported cases of violent behaviour during the recent CVR exercise by hoodlums and over-zealous parties’ supporters,” Olumekun stated.

The dialogue session was organised by Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, PLAC.

Postpones Rivers re-run again, cites threats, violence

Meanwhile,  following last Friday’s razing of the office of the INEC in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, the commission has postponed the conduct of national and state legislative re-run elections in the state.

The cancellation was announced in a statement  signed by the commission’s scribe, Augusta Ogakwu, in Abuja, yesterday.

INEC had last month held a national stakeholders forum on outstanding re-run elections, at the end of which July 30 was unanimously slated for the exercise in Rivers.

The statement read: “INEC has, in conjunction with security agencies, relevant extra-ministerial departments and agencies and civil society organizations, undertaken periodic electoral risk assessments in the three and a half weeks since this decision was reached at the national stakeholders meeting held in Abuja on June 30, 2016.

“The reports of these assessments have been almost unanimous in concluding that the prevailing security situation in most parts of the state where elections are to be undertaken are not conducive for peaceful elections.

“As a responsible organization and conscious of the violence, maiming and fatalities which accompanied the previous elections in March as well as developments in the state since then, the commission cannot ignore such credible reports.

‘’In the circumstances therefore, it is compelled to further postpone the re-run legislative elections in Rivers State as one of the principal conditions earlier stipulated for the return to the state for the conclusion of the elections has, regrettably, not been met.”

Rivers govt calls for dissolution of INEC under Yakubu

The Rivers State government also, yesterday, called for dissolution of the INEC under the leadership of Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

Commissioner for Information and Communications,  Dr Austin Tam-George, said in a statement that the National Assembly and the Federal Government should work towards disbandment of the electoral body.

He accused the commission of allegedly conniving with the leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC, to postpone the re-run elections, slated for Saturday, indefinitely.

The government further enjoined the international community to assist in mounting diplomatic pressure on the Federal Government to give Nigerians a credible electoral body.

INEC messing up democracy in Nigeria

—Fayose

Reacting in a similar vein, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, said INEC was messing up democracy in Nigeria with its handling of elections under the President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress, APC, government.

The governor, who described the postponement of Rivers State re-run elections and the alleged manipulation of the Imo North senatorial election as another dangerous signal of what to come in 2019, asked how an INEC that could not conduct elections conclusively in just one state would be able to conduct elections in the entire country in 2019.

In a statement issued, yesterday, by Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor reiterated his fear that democracy in Nigeria was being threatened by INEC, stressing that this should call for national and international reflection.

He said:  “Lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the entire world should be worried that after conducting inconclusive elections in Rivers State in March this year, INEC postponed conclusion of the elections

twice.

“INEC had on June 20, after a meeting with relevant stakeholders, fixed June 30 as new date for the conclusion of the poll.

“However, the electoral commission   postponed the elections for the second time, claiming reports of violence, and one wonders how INEC will be able to conduct elections in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in 2019 if it has not been able to conclude elections in Rivers State in four months!”

The governor said   President Buhari should be worried that since he assumed office, all elections conducted by INEC ended inconclusively, adding it should be clear to the President and his

party men that absence of free, fair and credible electoral process was a direct invitation to anarchy.

He said: “Nigerians had thought issues of violence, ballot snatching and electoral fraud had been put behind them only for it to be brought back frontally by the Buhari’s government.

“President Buhari should ask himself if he would have been elected   if the system then did not allow free and fair elections. INEC Chairman, Prof   Mahmood Yakubu should also be worried if there would have been an INEC to head if the 2015 elections had been inconclusive.

“I, therefore, appeal to the APC led federal government not to destroy the legacy of near credible electoral process bequeathed on Nigeria by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, government.

“The APC led federal government should allow for a system that will make Nigerians to be able to elect their leaders freely.”