From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has threatened to blacklist any political party that conducts acrimonious congress.
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, who stated this in a statement, yesterday, decried the recurrent acrimony, violence and destruction of property that characterise party congresses.
He said the level of violence in some of the congresses was making it extremely difficult for the commission to exercise its statutory oversight responsibility as demanded by law.
“INEC remains deeply concerned about the acrimony and violence within parties such that there are now more suits in various courts of law arising from party congresses and primaries than from elections conducted by the commission.”
He said the commission would not hesitate to withdraw its staff from monitoring any violent political party meetings, with the resultant non-recognition of their outcomes.
Okoye said INEC derived the powers to do so from its statutory oversight responsibility enshrined in Sections 85 and 87 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended).
He also reminded political parties to nominate their candidates for the Anambra State governorship election and by-election into the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections.
“Parties must stick to the respective timetable and schedule of activities for these elections as released by the commission, which have been communicated to them and are available at the INEC website. Parties must ensure their primaries are peaceful and orderly. Above all, they must adhere strictly to the Electoral Act, INEC regulations and guidelines, as well as party constitutions and rules, which are domiciled with the commission.”
Meanwhile, the ommission has disclosed that three of its staff in Borno State, last weekend, died in an auto crash, leaving five others injured.
Okoye explained they were travelling to Maiduguri for a special training ahead of the conversion of voting points into polling units.
“On Sunday, April 18, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the state, Mohammed Ibrahim, informed the commission that an electoral officer (EO) and some assistant electoral officers (AEOs) travelling from some councils to Maiduguri for a special training ahead of the conversion of voting points into polling units were involved in the accident.
“Unfortunately, three staff: Adamu Mohammed (EO, Biu council), Abubakar Joda and Suleiman Umar (AEOs, Damboa council) died while five others sustained injuries.
“The deceased, who were indigenes of Adamawa State, were buried yesterday in Yola.
“Last week, the commission commenced nationwide train-the-trainers workshop in Abuja, involving heads of operations departments drawn from all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“The training is to be cascaded to state level nationwide ahead of the fieldwork for the physical conversion of the VPs to PUs. The aim is to conclude the exercise ahead of the resumption of the continuous voter registration on June 28,” the commission said.