The Director Voter Education of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, has argued that the body did its best to ensure free and fair elections in Rivers state.
Analysing the delay of the election re-run, over a stretch of about eight months, Mr Osaze said “there was a lot of tension and INEC had to do reverse logistics before making the decision to go back.
This according to him, was as a result of the wide spread violence which even led to the death of a youth corps member.
“One has to be very careful, as lives are very important.
“There is no sense in conducting elections in an atmosphere of violence, as if it’s a theatre of war,” he added.
This follows the commission’s initial refusal and recent agreement to fix a date for the re-run process in the state, after the Senate had threatened to suspend plenary if a date was not fixed for the re-run.
Mr Osaze, made the comments while speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily.
He stated that “the commission could not fix a date until it was being formally informed of the existence of a vacancy in the state House”.
However, he claimed it was not the first time INEC had attempted to go back to Rivers State.
“This deals with the 2015 elections, which were conducted.”
“In between, some of those elections were annulled and in March, we were asked to return and conduct the elections,” he said.
Mr Osaze explained that when elections are annulled in some constituencies, INEC had to be given the judgement, of which areas were cancelled in order to know where exactly to conduct the election re-run.
In several attempts to return for a re-run, there had always been issues threatening to cause a breakdown of law and order, the INEC boss said.
Defending INEC’s stance, he further stated that the law allowed INEC to postpone elections when there was a likelihood of breakdown of law and order.
“We’ve had stakeholders meetings in Abuja, the various constituencies in Rivers state as well as court cases, asking INEC not to continue with conducting elections in Rivers.”
Addressing the idea that people are beginning to lose confidence in the commission, Mr Osaze said “very often, that comes from the political class who have their parties and personal interest and I think it’s a determined effort to undermine the confidence of INEC.
“Unfortunately, that is picked up by less discerning people who see one or two things and do not have a background,” he added.
After many deliberations, INEC has finally approved the conduct of three hanging elections, in Lagos and Rivers states as well as the FCT.
