INEC states position on Akpabio’s senate candidacy, court order

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has reacted to a recent Federal High Court judgement which ordered the commission to recognize Senator Godswill Akpabio as the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate for Akwa Ibom Northwest.

Speaking at a forum in Abuja, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi said the commission had not yet received a copy of the order.

“We read the reports of the said court judgment in the media like everybody else. We are yet to receive the certified true copy of the court processes and as such, we cannot be reacting based on media reports.

“However, when we eventually receive it, we will carefully study it. If the position of the court is not in agreement with what we believe to be right and just, the Commission reserves the right to take further action. But that is a decision the Commission would have to take,” he stated.

Meanwhile, at a meeting with Guild of Editors in Lagos on Friday, Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said the commission intends to deploy 1.4 million ad hoc staff for 2023 polls.

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National Chairman of the commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, made the disclosure while fielding questions from the Nigerian Guild of Editors, yesterday, in Lagos.

“We are going to manage 21,520 positions in 2023-the President and Vice President, 28 governors, 28 Deputy Governors, 109 Senators, 360 members of the House of Representatives, 993 State Constituencies for which elections would be conducted. So it’s a huge undertaking. We have 18 political parties.

Asked why the Commission is not employing electronic voting in the forthcoming elections, Prof. Yakubu said the commission is getting closer to electronic voting in future elections.

“There has been improvement in the process. If you reflect back on 1999 and 2003, there were moments when winners were declared while voters were still in the voting queue; it will never happen again.

“We are deliberately deploying technology to make it very difficult if not impossible. There are still challenges but you can see the gradual improvement. It is brick by brick you build a house, you don’t build a house overnight.

“Our vision for the 2023 election is to conduct the best elections ever conducted in Nigeria that would be free, fair, credible, transparent, inclusive and verifiable. People can sit down and see the result of their polling units Online,” he said.

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