Politics
Edo Poll: PDP Urges Full Security
The Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct security agencies to provide full security for the governorship election in Edo State which has now been shifted to September 28, 2016.
This is contained in a statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, on Wednesday in Abuja.
Adeyeye said that PDP’s attention was drawn to a “shocking breaking news’’ of the advice by the police to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the election.
The Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) had earlier on Wednesday urged INEC to postpone the Edo State election earlier scheduled for tomorrow, citing security threat.
Police spokesman, Mr Don Awunah, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, made the call at a joint news conference with his counterpart of the DSS in Abuja.
He said that credible intelligence available to the agencies indicated plans by insurgent and extremist elements to attack vulnerable communities and soft targets in the country.
Awunah said that Edo was among the states being earmarked for the planned attacks by the extremists between Sept. 12 and Sept.13.
He said that while election was important, security agencies could not allow the peace of the country to be disrupted.
But Adeyeye said that the PDP was taken aback on the security advice coming a day after Buhari was present at the “mega rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benin’’.
According to him, the APC mega rally was concluded without any hitch.
“It is on record that INEC recently conducted a ‘hitch free’ senatorial bye-election in Borno State which is a high-point of insurgency in the country but the security agencies saw no reason to call off the election.
“It is therefore lamentable to hear from these same security agencies that the election cannot hold in a state where the president and all the APC leaders and members had an uninterrupted rally.
“we are calling on the president to caution the security agencies and direct them to provide full security and also to desist from doing anything that will jeopardize this forthcoming gubernatorial election in Edo.
“We are equally counting on INEC not to succumb to this false alarm by acting independently and holding election as scheduled,’’ Adeyeye said.
He added that the PDP hoped that the advice from the security agencies was not in concert with the APC “having seen the indices of losing the state election to the PDP”.
“Finally, the PDP leadership led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, calls on our members, teeming supporters, other Edo voters and the international community to remain law-abiding,’’ Adeyeye said.
It would be recalled that the APC Deputy National Chairman (South), Mr Segun Oni, had said that the party would wait for INEC’s decision on the call for postponement of the election before making any pronouncement.
“When INEC talks, then we will react.
“INEC is the final authority on this matter. It is like an exam where a student cannot decide what he will score; so let us be patient,’’ Oni said in Abuja.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted on the conclusion of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise yesterday (Sunday) despite calls by some opposition political parties and civil society organisations for an extension over concerns that millions of citizens could be excluded from the 2027 general elections.
In a notice issued on its X (formerly Twitter) handle on Saturday, the commission reminded the public that the exercise would end on Sunday, July 26, with designated registration centres open from 9am to 3pm.
“Your future won’t wait. Neither should you. The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ends Sunday, 26 July 2026,” the Commission stated.
INEC also reminded prospective voters that they could complete the registration process online through its dedicated CVR portal or visit designated INEC offices and registration centres nationwide for physical assistance.
The new Electoral Act stipulates that INEC is required to stop voter registration, updating and revision of the voters’ register 90 days before an election to allow for data clean-up, the printing of Permanent Voter Cards and other logistical preparations.
The law also requires the Commission to display the voters’ register for claims and objections within the stipulated period to enable eligible Nigerians to challenge omissions and errors and help ensure the credibility of the final register for the polls.
The INEC National Commissioner on Information and Voter Education, Mr Mohammed Haruna, told The Tide source that the Commission would not extend the deadline, stressing that the registration exercise had to close to allow the electoral body to begin cleaning the data already collected.
“By midnight on Sunday, voter registration ends. There won’t be any extension. There are so many things that we need to do at the back end. We have to draw a line; otherwise, we won’t be able to produce a clean copy of what has been posted,” he said.
Mr Haruna explained that the commission’s Information Technology team and the Voter Registration Department would begin processing the data immediately after the closure of the registration window.
He said INEC would deploy its Automated Biometric Identification System to detect and remove multiple registrations before the provisional voters’ register is displayed for public scrutiny.
“We have this automatic biometric system that will check whether somebody has registered more than once. They will publish the register for claims and objections. That is, if anybody thinks a name shouldn’t be on the register, or if he has some claims, for instance, that his name has been omitted or some of his details are incorrect,” he said.
According to him, the final number of newly registered voters would only be known after the biometric verification and the claims and objections process.
“So, it’s after all that has been done that we will have a final figure, which we will now add to the existing 93 million or so. That will then become the voters’ register. We are mandated to give every political party a copy ahead of the election,” Mr Haruna added.
Responding to concerns over the number of Nigerians who may be excluded from the 2027 electoral process by the closure, the national commissioner said INEC could only account for eligible citizens who presented themselves for registration.
He added that the commission had recorded registrations through its online platform, physical registration centres and INEC offices across the 774 local government areas.
According to a public announcement signed by Mr Ariyo Rufus, Head of Department, Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Inclusivity on behalf of Mr Oluwatoyin Babalola, the INEC Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), the said exercise is aimed at assessing its operational readiness and testing the efficiency of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the governorship poll.
INEC stated that the exercise would simulate Election Day accreditation procedures but clarified that no voting would take place during the exercise.
The commission explained that “the mock accreditation would be conducted in selected polling units spread across the three senatorial districts of Osun State, covering Osun Central, Osun East and Osun West.
“In Osun Central Senatorial District, the selected local government areas are Osogbo, Olorunda, Ifelodun and Boripe, with designated polling units identified for the exercise.
“For Osun East Senatorial District, the exercise will take place in selected polling units across Ilesa West, Ilesa East, Oriade and Obokun local government areas.”
INEC also listed Egbedore, Ede North, Ede South and Ejigbo local government areas as the selected councils for the mock accreditation exercise in Osun West Senatorial District.
The commission urged all registered voters whose polling units were selected to participate in the exercise, stressing that only holders of valid Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) would be accredited.
“This exercise is designed to test the functionality and efficiency of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) under conditions similar to Election Day. There shall be no voting during the exercise,” the Commission stated.
INEC reaffirmed its appreciation to residents of Osun State for their continued cooperation and support throughout the electoral process.
INEC also assured political parties, the media, civil society organisations and other stakeholders of the Commission’s commitment to conducting a free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive governorship election in Osun State.
Mr Dare made the remark while criticizing Alhaji Abubakar for hiring a United States of America lobbyist with $1.2 million, in preparation for the 2027 elections.
In a statement he personally signed, Mr Dare said the former vice president can’t take Nigeria down the path of self-destruction.
The statement read in part: “Worse still, for a man who presumes to offer leadership to Africa’s most populous nation, his recent resort to grievance offshoring, outsourcing political warfare to Washington and reportedly paying $1.2 million to an American lobbying firm to peddle petitions against a sitting Nigerian President, stands as an affront to Nigeria’s sovereignty and a vote of no confidence in its democratic institutions.
“It is also a stinging slight, an implicit condescension directed at generations of Nigerian journalists, policy analysts, academics, and public intellectuals who have spent decades analysing, critiquing, and carrying the burden of the nation’s democratic evolution.
“The Atiku Abubakar of today cuts a pitiable figure, a grotesque portrait of what a politician becomes when ambition overwhelms judgment and every political faculty becomes programmed for self-destruction.
“No, Atiku cannot take Nigeria down that path with him. He must travel it alone. But first, Nigerians deserve Atiku Abubakar’s report card. Charity, they say, begins at home, not in Washington.
“Nigerians deserve to know whether the Atiku Abubakar who has long presented himself as a democrat is, in reality, a politician of many colours. He has erected for himself a throne built simultaneously on sand and bayonets. It is time to explode the bayonets.”
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