- Exercise’ll be credible, Commission assures electorate
Tension is high across 24 states in Nigeria ahead of the supplementary elections scheduled for Saturday by the Independent National electoral Commission.
The supplementary elections across 2,660 polling units are to conclude the governorship, state house of assembly, senatorial and House of Representatives elections in constituencies where they were previously suspended due to some reasons including violence and situations where the vote margin between the winner and the first runner up is less than the cancelled votes.
INEC had conducted the Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25 and the governorship and state house of assembly polls on 18 March.
The supplementary governorship elections will be held in 20 LGAs each in Adamawa and Kebbi states. Both states have a total of 21 LGAs each.
In Adamawa, the elections will be held in a total of 69 polling units and 142 PUs in Kebbi State with 36,935 and 94,209 eligible voters, respectively.
Eligible voters are the total number of voters who have collected their PVCs.
For the State House of Assembly positions, elections will be held for 57 constituencies in 17 states.
They are: Akwa Ibom (1), Bayelsa (1), Ebonyi (5), Edo (3), Ekiti (1), Imo (1), Kaduna (5), Kano (14), Kebbi (8), Niger (4), Ogun (1), Taraba (1), Yobe (1), Jigawa (3), Katsina (3), Enugu (1), and Adamawa (4).
The Senatorial elections will be held in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States.
In Sokoto, supplementary elections are to be held for all three senatorial seats –Sokoto North, Sokoto East and Sokoto South– where elections were earlier declared inconclusive.
Elections will be held in 389 polling units across all the 23 LGAs of the state. Altogether, there are 227,743 eligible voters to participate in the election.
In Kebbi and Zamfara States, the election is to be held in one senatorial district each –Kebbi North and Zamfara Central.
While the election will be holding in 23 PUs in the Kebbi North senatorial elections, voters in 83 PUs will be voting for the Zamfara Central senatorial election. They have 13,243 and 47,277 eligible voters, respectively.
Meanwhile, supplementary elections for the House of Representatives will be held for 31 constituencies in 15 states.
They are; Akwa Ibom (2), Anambra (1), Bayelsa (1), Edo (1), Imo (1), Kano (2), Kebbi (2), Kogi (1), Oyo (2), Rivers (2), Sokoto (11), Taraba (1) , Zamfara (2), Jigawa (1) and Ebonyi State (1).
The INEC in Niger State has assured that all necessary arrangements have been concluded for the conduct of supplementary elections for the seats of the State House of Assembly in 15 polling units of four local government areas on Saturday.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ahmed Yusha’u Garki made the disclosure at a stakeholder meeting held at INEC Headquarters, adding, that the local government areas affected included Agaie, Agwara, Rafi and Rijau, respectively.
The REC, however, attributed the tremendous success recorded during the recently held 2023 general elections in the state to the mutual understanding between the stakeholders across the political parties and urged them to maintain the tempo.
He also appreciated all the security agencies for their display of professionalism by abiding by the electoral laws during the elections, most especially the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force.
Garki said, “I must appreciate the stakeholders in the state for their mutual understanding, support and commitment before, during and after the elections. Looking at where we are coming from, from Presidential, National, Assembly, Governorship, and state Assembly elections, your cooperation has made our job easier, the peaceful conduct of the general elections in the state is a plus to us all.
“I thereby urge you all to maintain the synergy that has already been established.”
On their part, the stakeholders, particularly, representatives of political parties otherwise known as Inter- Parties Advisory Council, enjoined INEC to deploy an experienced workforce to where the supplementary elections would be conducted so as to achieve hitch-free exercise, stressing that the conduct of the recently held 2023 general elections in the state was the most reliable, fair and credible since 1999.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Police Niger State Command, Ogundele Joshua Ayodeji assured that the Command would continue to support INEC at all times.
Also, INEC has given an update on the governorship rerun in Adamawa State, confirming April 15 for the rerun.
The Commission also confirmed that the rerun would be done in 69 polling units across 20 local government areas with 32,935 collected PVCs.
The update was announced by the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the state, Hudu Ari, who hosted a stakeholders meeting to discuss the rerun.
Ari assured the stakeholders that the rerun would be credible.
His assurance came against doubts severally expressed, especially by the People’s Democratic Party, and other supporters of the party’s governorship candidate, Ahmadu Fintiri.
The interests within the PDP camp have been insisting that Ari had compromised himself.
The vote of no confidence, as a result of which Ari’s sack had been advocated on numerous occasions, including during a street walk by supporters of Fintiri earlier on Wednesday, was first passed during the March 18 governorship election.
Doubts about Ari emerged after an audio recording went viral in which he was allegedly instructing an INEC subordinate to favour an opponent of Fintiri.
Ari, who has so far survived the calls for his removal, also disclosed during the INEC-stakeholders meeting that supplementary elections to finally determine the outstanding four House of Assembly members would be held on Saturday.
“For the state constituency elections, four state constituencies are involved: Girei, Gombi, Numan and Toungo,” Ari said.
He explained that in Girei, seven PUs were involved with 5,035 collected PVCs.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri who is the PDP candidate for the April 15 rerun will go into it with 421,524 votes while Aisha Ahmed Binani of All Progressives Congress, will participate in the rerun with 390,375 votes received from the initial March 18 election.
In the meantime, the Nigeria Police Force says it has begun the deployment of both operational and human assets to the affected states.
The police, a lead agency in election security, disclosed that it had already joined forces with other security agencies ahead of the supplementary polls.
The spokesman of the force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said that Nigerians should expect a seamless electoral process during the supplementary elections.
“Nigerians should expect a seamless process; they should expect a more secured electoral process in the affected states,” he said.
Speaking on the elections, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the chief press secretary to INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission at its meeting held on March 27, 2023, fixed Saturday, April 15 for the conduct of outstanding supplementary elections nationwide.
“The commission is fully prepared for the elections. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be deployed as usual and we appeal to all political parties, their candidates, and stakeholders to allow the elections to be held unhindered.
“Election is not war. It is a given that someone will win. Contestants who lost in an election should imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship and try again next time. This is what democracy is all about,” Oyekanmi stated.
Meanwhile, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has called on the electorate to vote for the party and its candidates during Saturday’s supplementary elections.
Atiku while wooing the electorates said in a press statement, signed by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, on Thursday, that voters should storm polling units at Adamawa and Kebbi states where supplementary polls will hold on April 15, to vote for PDP governorship candidates, as well as candidates vying for federal and state legislatures in other parts of the country.
The statement quoted Atiku as saying, “In both Adamawa and Kebbi where supplementary elections shall be held on Saturday, I wish to make a special appeal to the voters in the respective polling units where elections shall be taking place to make sure that the PDP enjoys overwhelming support through their votes.
“It is an established fact that the All Progressives Congress has failed the people of this country and, especially, in Kebbi State, the more reason it is incumbent on the electorate to vote them out and return the PDP.”
