Edo 2020: INEC Raises Alarm Over Spate Of Conflicting Court Rulings
BY GRACE ANYANWU, ABUJA – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rose from a crucial meeting on Tuesday and expressed serious concerns over the spate of conflicting judicial rulings over the Edo State pre-election political party matters.
The Commission pointedly warned that the rate of the litigations and judicial pronouncements could harm the smooth conduct of primaries, particularly the scheduled September 20 governorship elections.
It specifically said that the spate and tenor of pre-election litigations and the conflicting orders emanating therefrom can harm the smooth conduct of primaries and the upcoming elections.
INEC said that it is closely monitoring the cases arising from the administration of political parties, the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates.
The Commission said; “This notwithstanding, the Commission restates its avowed commitment to continue to obey all orders and judgments from properly constituted courts in accordance with the rule of law”.
These were contained in a statement by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, who stressed that the conduct of party primaries, including resolution of disputes arising therefrom will end on June 27, 2020.
The Commission therefore declared that the submission of the list of candidates the parties propose to sponsor at the September 20 election and affidavits of validly nominated candidates will close at 6:00pm prompt on Monday, June 29, 2020.
Accordingly, INEC advised political parties to note that the organisation and scheduling of various activities and processes leading to the conduct of elections are complex and involve extensive and careful planning, stressing that any disruption of the processes comes at a huge cost to the nation.
The Commission also said that as part of its commitment to deepen the use of technology in elections, it would conduct a training programme for Liaison Officers nominated by all the registered Political Parties on the use of the INEC Portal for uploading nomination forms of candidates.
INEC further said; “The training will take place at the Conference Hall of the commission on Thursday (June 26) and Friday (June 27) in two batches, to allow for physical distancing in line with the COVID-19 protocols”.
The Commission said that it considered the report from the meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), that recently approved a Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for Security Officials on Electoral Duty.
The statement further said; “The code is signed by the Chairman of INEC, the National Security Adviser (NSA) as Co-Chairman of ICCES and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) as head of the lead agency in election security.”
The Commission said that the code would be uploaded on its websites, the Office of the NSA and the Nigeria Police Force on June 25.
