INEC battles with confidence building

• Assures of free, fair governorship election in Ekiti

The Independent National Electoral (INEC) is beginning to show signs that the Commission is under pressure to deliver transparent elections and not swayed by the influence of the ruling party government, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and that of President Muhammadu Buhari, who appointed the Chairman and Resident Electoral Commissioners in the 36 states of the federation.

The July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State and the September governorship election in Osun State are the major test cases on the neutrality of INEC in handling the 2019 general elections.

In the attempt for confidence building, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Ekiti, Osun and Oyo states, Mr. Solomon Soyebi and his counterpart in charge of Election Operations and Logistics, Mrs. Amina Zakari, at a pe-Election Preparation workshop organized for Electoral Officers, Assistant Electoral Officers and Head of Departments on Monday, promised that the hopes and expectations of Nigerians on the Ekiti governorship election will not be dashed; insisting that there would be no room for failure in the poll.

Soyebi admonished the INEC staff: “There will be no room for excuses. Any Local Government where this happen, the Electoral Officer, (EO) will be responsible.

“You must share responsibilities with your assistants to avoid one-man show. You must also watch your utterances so as to safeguard the integrity of the exercise.”

National Daily gathered that Amina Zakari further refuted Governor Ayodele Fayose’s allegation  that she had been hired by the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to rig the election in favour of APC.

Zakari challenged the governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support their allegations with evidence, saying it was not possible for an individual to rig an election.

Zakari declared: “They should prove that beyond reasonable doubt. I doubt it if an individual can rig an election when there are over 20,000 personnel to conduct the election.

“They should back their allegation with fact and figures. We (INEC) have nothing to hide. I see no reason why INEC would want to go back to bad old days. We are moving  forward as we remained focused to ensure a credible election that Nigeria will be proud of..”

Zakari also remarked that the workshop would review work done so far and to expose officials to new ideas, processes and approach to a successful conduct of the  election.

She stated: “The workshop is to ensure proper preparations for the election. This is the  practice over the years. It is to ensure there is no gap between policies and implementation

“It is to aid direct interaction with departments that initiate policies and to collect ideas that will help in reshaping policies and procedure

“I have no doubt that this will be well-organised and it will be adjudged as the most successful election ever conducted.”

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti, Prof. Abdul-Ganiyu Raji, had earlier observed that the workshop was to ensure information flow between policy formulators and the implementer towards a successful conduct of the election.