Abuja (Commonwealth Union) – There has been a notice issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission earlier this week regarding the elections of the off-season governorship. This off-season election would be for the Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states.
The chairman of the National Commissioner in charge of Information and Chairman Voter Education, Festus Okoye, stated that he has gone ahead and approved all off-season election schedules and time tables, adding that they could start without further delay.
The delay was a mystery but even the chairman could not understand how there was a delay as everything had been done from his end. Okoye claims that the commission is up to date on up to all off-season electoral work, noting that he was not happy with the accusations that the INEC was putting forward.
From the INEC’s point of view, it was possible a mistake was made but there is no hard proof of this. Which means that only speculations can be made. The INEC states that according to their research done there was a delay and this made it look like the Niger Delta had been neglected when it came to the election.
Okoye stated that to isolate Niger as a state was never intended and that he was sure there was some kind of miscommunication along the way. He showed his line of communication with the commission where they had done all the work regarding the election in a timely fashion so that everything was up to date and ready. Speaking at the press conference, Okoye said: “Sections 178(1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 mandates the Commission to conduct such elections not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of the last holder.”
