The suggestion by the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Security to the Independent National Electoral Commission for a postponement of the Edo state guber election slated for Saturday is capable of eroding public confidence in the election management body
The Transition Monitoring Group said this on Wednesday in a press release signed by its chairperson Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi who condemned the decision the security agencies took without consulting with INEC.
“It is astonishing that INEC appears not to have been taken into confidence before the security agencies came out in full glare of the public to announce its preference for a postponement,” Akiyode-Afolabi said.
The Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Service recently released a joint statement suggesting the postponement of the election. They cited “credible intelligence” of a plot by “insurgent and extremist elements” to disrupt the poll 0n September 10.
ALSO SEE: We cannot shift Edo guber poll – INEC declares
But the group believes the advice could be counter-productive. “TMG feels strongly that this tendency could undermine the confidence of voters and precipitate apathy and is capable of building tension in the electoral space,” Ms. Akiyode-Afolabi said.
“This could lead to electoral violence, which the security agencies are supposedly trying to prevent.”
According to Akiyode-Afolabi, this clear interference in the electoral process by the security agencies is a throwback to the 2015 general election, which was also postponed on the request of the nation’s security chiefs.
Come Saturday, and all things being equal, Godwin Obaseki, the APC candidate, is going to fight it out with Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the PDP in the jostle for the state Gov. Adams Oshiomhole has occupied for eight years.