The Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), has said that it is determined to conduct elections in Edo
and Ondo States, however, the electoral umpire says it will pull
out if there is unbearable violence recorded in the course of the
polls.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and
Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye, disclosed this on
Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Mr Okoye said the commission is poised to conduct these
elections though some political parties are engaging in activities
aimed at making the commission become scared about moving on with
the electoral exercises.
The tension in Edo state recently came to a very disturbing
magnitude when dozens of heavily armed security operatives stormed
the Assembly complex of the state, purportedly to forestall
an alleged plan to attack the facility by some unnamed persons.
While nerves seemed to be getting calm from the “averted
invasion” of the Assembly, news filtered in that seventeen
lawmakers in the state including 14 members whose seats have been
previously declared vacant, held a covert plenary and impeached the
Speaker of the House, Francis Okiye, and his deputy, Roland
Asoro.
This news triggered another round of palpable unrest, stirring
debates and causing opposition parties to throw shades and exchange
banters. The banters, however, degenerated to an unhealthy point to
which there were claims of a plot to assassinate high-profile
personalities in the state.
Having closely monitored the situation, INEC said the commission
is not scared, noting that it is going to strategise with the
security agencies and will move in to make sure that the people of
Edo State and the people of Ondo State are given the choice and
exercise their sovereign rights to choose whoever they want as
their leaders.
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INEC through its spokesman, Festus Okoye, insisted that there is
a level of violence that will be tolerated, adding that if the
threshold is exceeded, then the Commission would be forced to
suspend the electoral proceedings.
“The violence we are talking about will be the type of
violence that puts people on edge, which puts fear in the minds of
the people.
“The type of violence that is cogent and verifiable, that
everybody can see and be sure that the peace and security of the
state are being threatened. It is not if there is violence maybe in
a particular ward that the security agencies have been able to
contain that we are going to call off the election.
“Type of violence I’m talking about and the type of issues
that will lead us not to proceed with the election must be so
serious that no regulatory agency or no regulatory commission will
move into such a place to go and conduct election when it is
completely unsafe to conduct the election.
“We are determined to proceed with this election but if we
encounter the type of violence that is unbearable, the type of
violence that will make it completely impossible to conduct
anything called an election, we will pull out”.