By Temidayo Akinsuyi

Festus Okoye, a lawyer, is the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, he expressed the readiness of the electoral umpire to proceed with Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly Elections. He also spoke on the readiness of the commission to conduct elections in areas battling with security challenges. Excerpts:

There are reports that INEC may further postpone Saturday’s elections again. How true is that?

No! We are going ahead with the election. We are ready for this election.

There were reports that there may be a staggered election which was also one of the reasons why the election was postponed. What is your take on this?

The issue of staggered election was never on the table. The issue on the table was going ahead with the election. If we went on with the election, some polls would have opened at 8am, 9am and 10am and 12am midnight. The only thing we had was differential opening of the poll. That was the only issue in the cart and we discountenanced it.

What is your commission doing about conducting elections in volatile areas in the North East especially in areas where we have internally displaced persons?

Before this period, we developed a framework for voting by persons who are internally displaced and thereafter we issued a regulation and guidelines for voting by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Up to this particular period, we have identified IDPs in 15 states but as we are moving towards the elections, it may lead to upscale.

What we have said is that we have a data of all the persons who are internally displaced in various parts of the country in Borno, Yobe and Benue. During the Continuous Voters Registration exercise, those that lost their PVCs and whose names are in the voters register, we printed their PVCs and handed over to them. Those that have not registered before; we registered them and also gave them PVCs. We identified the camps of the IDPs and elections will be conducted in those camps based on the registration areas of all the people in the camps.

Wherever it is possible to conduct elections, we are going to conduct elections in those areas. Wherever it is impossible to conduct elections and the security agencies are saying they cannot protect those areas, of course we won’t conduct elections in those areas. The implication is that it is either the people are completely displaced or partially displaced. But our assurance is that wherever it is possible to conduct election in a state that have challenges of insurgency or insecurity, we will conduct election in those areas.

The governor of Borno state was attacked in Gamboru by Boko Haram insurgents while campaigning for the elections. What safety measures have you put in place to secure the lives of your ad-hoc members who will be conducting elections in these areas?

We won’t just move ad-hoc staff arbitrarily to places where we believe are very vulnerable or places we believe that if we deploy them to, they are likely to come to harm. We have been working with the Intelligence Consultative Committee on Election Security to map out places that we regard as flashpoints, places that have serious problems of insurgency and places that we have camps of IDPs. It is not as if we are oblivious of some of the security challenges but we are working with all these organs and the Resident Electoral Commissioners in these states that have challenges of insecurity are in touch with all the critical stakeholders in terms of where it is possible to conduct elections and places where it is impossible to conduct elections or where the registration areas has to be moved or adjusted to make sure that people vote. Wherever it is possible for people to vote, we will make sure that the people are not disenfranchised. So we are determined to make sure that every eligible Nigerian votes in this election unless it becomes practically impossible to conduct elections in some places in which case the registration areas will be adjusted to enable people to vote. Wherever it is secured to conduct elections, we conduct elections in those areas.
https://www.independent.ng/we-wont-deploy-inec-officials-to-danger-zones-okoye/

Especially NYSC members. We remembered how they were brutally murdered in 2011 because of Buhari's statement on dog and babboon

APC strong holds are danger zones

Alot of Nysc members died in 2011 thanks to the lifeless one.

Wherever it is possible to conduct elections, we are going to conduct elections in those areas. Wherever it is impossible to conduct elections and the security agencies are saying they cannot protect those areas, of course we won’t conduct elections in those areas. T

All lives matters.
This is part of the mess President MUHAMMADU BUHARI met on ground, left behind by the evil party, that he is cleaning as much as he can.

May God see our darling President througj as he takes us to the NEXT LEVEL of our lives.

OK. Danger zones like Daura?

Story

Chai

Apc strong holds is a no no

Trust me; every zone in Nigeria is endangered as long as Buhari keeps trying to cling to power!
I'm sorry INEC, we can't believe any word that comes from you guys anymore.
like Lai mohd, you guys have been compromised a long time ago.

Who want die

I urge inec to cancel election in such polling unit

Nice one from inec

Check my signature to migrate to canada

IN OTHER WORDS

lets hope every thing will move smooth bt incase be at alert esp if u are a foriegner living in the north

tunjijones:
Alot of Nysc members died in 2011 thanks to the lifeless one.

How many sai babarians remember? They don't.

I keep saying it Nigeria voting system is very poor
All inec adoc staff n coppers at are more than 10,000 vote wen they are not in their location, wat abt soldiers n police


Y not vote like the way we use our ATM card anywhere


Nigeria is too back ward

nice one inec

bedspread:
All Our Beloved Country Needs Right Now is A Head of State with A Right Head!! Every other thing will fall in Place..

Qualities of The Head of State with a Right Head..

1. An Aura of Unity in All Ramifications

2. Should have a Clear Direction that is visible to all

3. Should be Absolutely Fit

4. Should be able to assemble a Team of Counsellors of Great minds

5. Should be Totally Detrabilized

6. Should be Flexible, Accessible, Have a Listening Ear and willing to make Amendments when Corrected!

7. Willingness to Assemble the Best hands in Nigeria Not Assembling a group of People from his village...

President Buhari has Failed In Flying Colors in all of These!!

Do not Re-inforce Failure and Incompetency...

Do not use your Hands to kill yourself and Family!!

Buhari has Nothing to Offer but Tribal killings and Bloodshed!

A word they say is Enough for the Wise!

Totally detribalised? Na oyibo you dey find O!

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johnpaul1101:
Trust me; every zone in Nigeria is endangered as long as Buhari keeps trying to cling to power!
I'm sorry INEC, we can't believe any word that comes from you guys anymore.
like Lai mohd, you guys have been compromised a long time ago.

Why are you crying before proper announcement of 4+4 as the winner na.....please take heart in advance

before nko? why won't Inec tactically disenfranchise those that will massively vote against them? or you expect those suffering because of APC inefficiency to still vote them?

post=75982873:

All lives matters.
This is part of the mess President MUHAMMADU BUHARI met on ground, left behind by the evil party, that he is cleaning as much as he can.

May God see our darling President througj as he takes us to the NEXT LEVEL of our lives.

Guy have u lived up north if not shut the Bleep up. 2011 election was the most bloody because of buhari, we just pray this one wnt surpasses the formal. Cos buhari supporters are soar losers.

Before nko?

heberibiza:
so its corpers we will deploy