The Independent National Electoral Commission has postponed the conduct of senatorial election in Enugu East following the death of the Labour Party candidate, Oyibo Chukwu.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this on Friday at the INEC media briefing in Abuja.
According to Yakubu, the election will hold alongside the governorship polls on March 11.
Chukwu was killed and set ablaze at Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu South Local Government Area on Wednesday after gunmen opened fire on his convoy, killing him and his personal assistant.
The INEC chairman said the LP had communicated the death of its candidate, adding that the party also conveyed its intention to participate in the election for the constituency by replacing its deceased candidate, which he added, was in line with Section 34 (1) of the Electoral Act.
He explained, “The second issue is the unfortunate incident involving the candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State. I can confirm that we have now received a formal communication from the party informing the commission of the death of its candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District.
“The party also conveyed its intention to participate in the election for that constituency by replacing its deceased candidate. This request is in line with the provision of the law.
“The Labour Party has provided satisfactory evidence of the death of its candidate. Consequently, the commission has suspended the election in the senatorial district as provided by law.”
The INEC chairman added, “We have already communicated this decision to our Enugu State office. Therefore, there will be no senatorial election in Enugu East Senatorial District made up of six local government areas, 77 wards and 1,630 polling units.
“The election will now be combined with the governorship and State Assembly elections holding in the next two weeks on 11th March 2023.
“Materials already delivered for the senatorial election will remain in the custody of the Central Bank in the state until the new date for election.”
He said INEC was working with the major network service providers such as MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9Mobile to address any hitch that may arise during the polls.
Yakubu said the commission had also taken sufficient steps to fortify and protect its systems and processes against malicious attacks, adding that it had vast experience in election results transmission via the iREV while the BVAS requires online process only at the point of polling unit uploading.
“We have taken sufficient steps to fortify and protect our systems and processes. I must also say we are leaving certain things when it comes to cyber security to ourselves because the walls have ears, but Nigerians should rest assured that we are aware that our resources may be susceptible to attacks, but we have taken measures.
“We have tremendous experience in transmitting results real time in Nigeria. We successfully transmitted results for 105 constituencies nationwide. Please, rest assured that we are aware of the challenges and we have capacity within the commission to be able to respond to the challenges.
“After all, the BVAS is not an electronic voting machine; it will not operate online on election day. It is completely offline. Where we need a little bit of internet connectivity is when we transmit results from the polling unit, and we are on top of the game,” he said.
On the issue of omitting the Labour Party logo on House of Representatives ballot papers in Lagos, the INEC chairman said, “The commission has a record of obedience to court orders.
Also speaking, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, said 425,106 security operatives will be deployed for the elections to ensure secured electoral process.
The IGP who said the figure was exclusive of members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, stated that the personnel were drawn from the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
He said “In the Police, we have 310,973, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence – 51,000; Federal Road Safety Corps – 21,000; Nigerian Correctional Service – 11,336; National Drug Law Enforcement Agency – 9,447; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission – 350; Nigeria Immigration Service – 21,000.”
Baba also said orderlies attached to Very Important Personalities would be withdrawn during the polls and even if they escorted them to the voting centres, they should stay at a distance for the VIP to cast their votes before escorting them back.
