Guber poll: INEC once more expresses concern over the security situation in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi

Prior to the November 11 governorship elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, has expressed great concern over the rise of insecurity in the states of Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi.

The commission has therefore once more asked political parties and their candidates to avoid taking any actions or making any utterances that could arouse the public’s ire.

“The panel is concerned about the recent spike in violence and instability, particularly conflicts between party supporters and candidates in the upcoming elections.

The commission has repeatedly urged political parties to restrain their followers from actions that could endanger the peaceful conduct of elections in Nigeria during their interactions with them.All political parties and candidates are sincerely urged by INEC to refrain from statements and actions that could inflame the political climate.

The chairman of the commission’s information and voter education committee and national commissioner of INEC, Sam Olumekun, said in a statement yesterday that the commission would “continue to closely monitor the situation and sustain its engagement with security agencies and stakeholders to ensure a peaceful conduct of elections in the three states.”

He added that, starting on August 24, 2023, the commission had notified all political parties that the opening of its online portal for the submission of the list of polling units and collation centre agents had begun.

He claimed that the panel then consulted party representatives on the best way to ensure a smooth procedure.

Olumekun bemoaned the fact that political parties had failed to substantially comply by presenting a list of their agents in spite of this notification and subsequent reminders.

Only 55% of the anticipated total of 189,180 polling unit agents for the states of Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi have been uploaded to the official INEC portal.

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In particular, 29,278 of the anticipated 40,372 candidates for Bayelsa State, 51,681 of the anticipated 85,644 candidates for Imo, and 23,720 of the anticipated 63,144 candidates for Kogi State have been uploaded.

“Similarly, just 25.1% of the anticipated 15,804 Collation Agents have been uploaded in the three States: 1,246 (26.0%) out of 4,806 for Bayelsa, 1,638 (27.3%) out of 5,994 for Imo, and 1,095 (21.9%) out of 5,004 for Kogi State.

The commission hereby wishes to inform political parties once more that the portal will automatically close on Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 12:00 a.m.

No extension shall be made. Therefore, before the exercise’s deadline, those parties supporting candidates for the elections that have not yet uploaded the list of their agents should do so.

“On August 24, 2023, the online accreditation process for journalists officially began. It will end on October 22, 2023. 45 media groups have so far submitted applications for accreditation.

The commission also wants to use this platform to encourage all interested media organisations to submit an application on imap.inecnigeria.org before the application window closes on October 22, 2023. For emphasis, late applications won’t be accepted, and manual accreditation is no longer an option, he continued.