INEC makes U-turn, okays political campaigns till Thursday

…To update the nation today

…We would continue to energise our people – Tinubu

Tunde Opalana, Tom Okpe, Abuja and Patrick Okohue, Lagos

Against its earlier stand, the Independent National Electoral Commission (lNEC), on Monday, okayed continued campaign by political parties ahead of Saturday’s rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections. This decision was taken at a meeting of INEC management to review its preparations for the 2019 General Elections re-scheduled for Saturday, 23rd February 2019 for the Presidential and National Assembly Elections and Saturday, 9th March 20l9 for Governorship, State Assembly and Federal Capital Territory (PCT) Area Council Elections. Recall that at the briefing held on Saturday, 16th February 2019, at the Abuja International Conference Centre (AlCC), the Commission gave reasons for re-scheduling the polls and released a new Schedule of Activities leading up to the elections. The Commission has also worked out in detail, concrete steps to be taken to ensure that election materials arrive at the polling units in good time for prompt commencement of the polls on Saturday, 23rd February 2019. An update will be provided by the Commission at a press conference on Tuesday, 19th February at the Abuja international Conference Centre by 3pm. In the meantime, after consultations with political parties, the Commission has approved that campaigns by parties and candidates can resume forthwith to end by midnight of Thursday, 21st February 2019. Meanwhile, the Co-Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council and National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has said the aftermath of the postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly election slated for Saturday 16 February is to continue to energise the people. Tinubu, speaking to journalists on Monday at the party National Secretariat in Abuja after the party Caucus meeting said: “By law, we should continue to energize our people. It depends on our resources. The Electoral Act allows us to continue to campaign and to stop campaigning only 24 hours before the actual election. Once INEC changed the election date to February 23, they have given us the opening to campaign and energise our people. If you have a garden and you don’t nourish it with water, the grass will remain dormant. We don’t want our party to remain dormant”. When asked if the postponement will affect INEC’ credibility, the Co-Chairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council stated that it depends on how the new process is handled. “It depends on how it is handled and the new process. How the process is managed. You can convert what appears a crisis, a situation of adversity to an opportunity and progress. INEC, under the law, is empowered to postpone, cancel and do whatever is necessary to ensure free and fair election. No party other than INEC has this power. We can express our anger and disappointment, but no party can reverse what has been done. So, we are ready for Feb. 23. On President Buhari’s directives to security agencies to deal ruthlessly with ballot box snatchers, the Jagaban Borgu said: “I was in that meeting; the president was just reinforcing the fact that if you are out there snatching ballot boxes, and causing destruction, you are at risk of your own life on whatever happens to you. “No President will give an order that his own citizens be shot summarily, No! No, its okay, emotions are running high these days. Any individual including myself can be misinterpreted. Shoot on sight are not his words; he is a law-abiding person and he understands categorically and clearly what the rule of law is and the lives of individual citizens, he knows that he is in that office to protect. “Now, let me say this: he has been fighting Boko Haram, kidnappers and all that before this election, did you hear him asking them to be shot and executed summarily? If he has gone through that in the last five years, please give him the benefit of doubt”, he said.