The Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) finally moved, last week, to fix new dates for the myriads of pending re-run elections earlier declared inconclusive by it in two states of the Federation – Lagos and Rivers States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Nothing, however, was said about the pending re-run for Anambra Central Senatorial District.

INEC scheduled the pending Lagos House of Representatives and the councillorship seats for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for 3rd  December, 2016, while the inconclusive elections for Rivers State will now be held on Saturday, 10th  December 2016.

INEC probably roused itself into action as a result of the threat by the Senate on Wednesday, 2nd  November 2016 (last week) to shut down its plenary session if by the end of this month the electoral umpire did not take action to address the pending elections.

The Commission had consistently blamed its inability to complete the re-run elections, especially in Rivers State, on “security” concerns. Its spokesmen, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi and Nick Dazang, have always maintained that the Commission would not hold the elections until it was reassured of the safety of its personnel and materials.

It will be recalled that massive violence trailed each attempt to hold elections in the state since last year. Two weeks to the March 2016 re-run polls, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC, Mr Franklin Obi, was gruesomely beheaded and his head taken away by his assailants. During the Election Day on 21st  March, a Youth Corps member who served as INEC ad-hoc staff, Mr Samuel Okonta, was murdered and INEC, again, declared the election inconclusive.

However, the Rivers State Governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike, has consistently maintained that if the same INEC under its former chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, was able to hold elections successfully in the Boko Haram hotbed of the North East last year, there is nothing about the situation in Rivers State to prevent it from doing its job.

We believe it is the job of INEC, working with security agencies, to ensure security during elections. The nation can no longer accept any excuse for keeping Nigerians, especially the people of Rivers State (who are not represented in the Senate and the House of Reps) from enjoying their democratic rights to be represented at the parliaments where decisions are made about the way their state and the country are governed.

We call on the Rivers State political stakeholders to close ranks and be true to the peace pact they signed earlier in the year. They must put the interests of the state above narrow partisan interests and work for the success of all the pending re-run polls.