Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has cautioned against plans to disrupt the upcoming February 3 re-run and bye-elections in various parts of the country.
The INEC boss sounded the alarm on Tuesday during the inaugural quarterly meeting of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) held in Abuja.
He emphasized the inherent challenges in conducting isolated elections, such as bye-elections and re-run elections, citing potential disruptive behaviour by some candidates and their supporters.
Expressing concerns over prevailing insecurity in certain states, exacerbated by incendiary statements from political actors, Yakubu urged security agencies to create a conducive environment for the elections to proceed smoothly.
Highlighting the role of security agencies, Yakubu emphasized their responsibility to ensure a secure environment for INEC’s deployment of personnel and materials.
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His words: Security agencies must secure the environment to enable us to deploy personnel and materials, the protection of observers, the media as well as the polling and collation agents representing the political parties and candidates.
“Without a secure and peaceful environment, the conduct of credible elections is imperilled.
“A re-run election conducted in one polling unit or a handful of polling units can be severely disrupted by acts of thuggery knowing full well that these few locations will determine the outcome of the election.
“Arising from the reports we received from the states, concerns have been raised about the impact of the prevailing insecurity in some states on the conduct of the elections, made worse by incendiary statements by some political actors.
“As we prepare for the bye-elections and re-run elections, we should equally be prepared for the two major elections later in this year in Edo and Ondo states.”
Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun acknowledged the challenges of isolated elections and assured Nigerians that security agencies were well-prepared.
