By Oladipo Airenakho
Benin City, Nigeria – Preliminary press conference by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room on the rescheduled governorship election in Edo State has said it will hold the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) accountable for any lapses and failures in the conduct of a successful governorship election in Edo State.
The rescheduled election will hold tomorrow Wednesday September 28, 2016. The election which was originally scheduled to hold on September 10, 2016 was unexpectedly postponed by INEC which cited security concerns for its action that received serious backlash from people across Nigeria and around the world.
Apart from holding the electoral body accountable for the early distribution and deployment of personnel; timely opening of poll; knowledge of procedures by personnel; voting procedures, particularly with regards to the efficacy of the Smart Card Readers; and the collation process, which has always been a concern for the situation room, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room will also hold INEC leadership responsible for failure to keep an eye on their staff during the collation process.
Spokesman for the group, Mr. Clement Nwankwo, made this known while reading a prepared text at a press briefing held in Benin City in less than hours to the commencement of the Governorship poll.
The group, he said, also noted the promised preparedness of the Nigeria Police as well as other security services but hoped that in future elections in the country there will be no need to deploy such large numbers of security personnel as being witnessed at this election.
Mr. Nwankwo advised the security personnel to exercise restraint in dealing with voters and also avoid acts of intimidation, inappropriate use of force and other acts capable of undermining the electoral process.
On the election itself, the group reiterated that the election must demonstrate the highest possible commitment from the security services to support INEC in completing its constitutional role of organizing credible elections that can inspire continued public confidence.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has over 70 civil society organizations represented while observers are distributed across the 18 local government areas of the state.
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria such as CLEE Foundation, Action Aid Nigeria, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), EdoCSOs, CONGOS and WANGONET, amongst others are on ground in the situation room.
