INEC Ready For Rivers Rerun, Other Polls

The Independent Na
tional Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is ready for the conclusion of the suspended  re-run elections in Rivers, Imo and other States  given a conducive environment in those states.
The Director of Publicity and Civil Education of INEC, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi who stated this at the opening of a three-day workshop for INEC Heads of Voter Education and Publicity Department said consultation with security agencies, political parties and their candidates, and other stakeholders were still ongoing.
Uzzi confirmed that the commission was prepared and ready in the areas of logistics, administrative and operational deployment to conduct the elections. But there are factors outside INEC control such as conducive environment that will determine whether INEC will go back to the states.
The INEC spokesman also revealed that the commission was committed to adopting strategic measures that would increase voter education across the country in the next general election, stressing that the workshop was part of the INEC’s preparations for the 2019 general elections.
According to him, “We know the importance of communicating our policies and programmes to the stakeholders and that is why we are working to ensure that we communicate in an effective manner to increase the voter awareness.
“We want to ensure that there is increase in voter awareness and their participation in our activities and future elections,” he said.
Speaking also,the INEC’s Deputy-Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Mr. Nick Dazang, said the workshop was to review the communication strategies deployed during the 2015 general elections and improve on them ahead of 2019 general elections.
Dazang said the workshop participants would also look at the opportunities in the social media platform such as twitter, instagram, facebook and the internet to educate voters.
“As you know more than 79 million Nigerians used the internet every day. That is more than one –third of the country’s population. If we can get the attention of at least 14 million of these, we are on course,” he said.