INEC Ready For Anambra Governorship Polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), last Monday, said it was  prepared  to conduct the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State.
Addressing civil society organisations at a dialogue organised for INEC and civil society  organisations by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) in Abuja, the Commission’s  Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor C.E Onukaogu, said the Commission had reviewed all past elections with a view to avoiding past mistakes and making the Anambra election the  best to be held in the country.
He, however, observed that voter apathy was the bane of elections in the state, and further argued that Nigeria’s development was stalled because the electorates were not given  the opportunity to freely choose who ruled them.
Onukacgu added that the Commission had resolved to empower the people by educating them on  their right to determine who rule them and by informing them that they have the power to recall anyone elected by them once the person fails to keep to his campaign promises.
Also fNEC, said it would use Nigerian Air Force jets to convey sensitive election materials to  most of the local governments in the state, especially Anambra West which it described as a  very difficult and peculiar terrain similar to the Niger Delta.
Professor C.E Onukaogu, disclosed that INEC had extended  the training period of all the ad-hoc personnel it intended to engage for the gubernatorial poll from two to five days.
He said: “We have resolved that the training would end at least 10 days before the election. This will enable us to deploy the trainees at least four days before the election. ‘One of the challenges we faced in the past is that many ad-hoc staff never knew their place of  assignment until the morning of the election. This we have resolved to put a stop to.”
The Commissioner, who emphasised the need for politicians in Anambra State to eschew politics  of bitterness and rancour capable of fuelling insecurity in the state, stressed that the electoral body, in line with its resolve to use the November 16 gubernatorial poll to signal the dawn of a new era in election management in Nigeria, had entered into partnership with both the police and  the Navy.