Ahead of the Saturday March 18th, 2023, governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections, the Benue State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Samuel Egwu said any electoral officer that goes against provisions in the 2022 Electoral Law will be severely delt with.
Professor Egwu who spoke during a stakeholder meeting with heads of security outfits, candidates of political parties, heads of political parties as well as civil society organisations at the Precious Event Centre Makurdi, the Benue State capital promised to ensure adequate logistical arrangement for a seamless and hitch- free polls.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner assured stakeholders during the meeting that any electoral officer who fails to comply with the INEC guidelines will be decisively delt with.
In their contributions, the state Commissioner of Police Wale Abass who spoke on behalf of other security outfits in the state explained that the meeting was to review security situation in the last Presidential and National Assembly elections with a view to improving on areas where breaches were noticed in the forthcoming gubernatorial and House of Assembly polls.
He said, “We want to see how we can go about these elections that will be devoid of any acrimony, violence and rancour. These are the things we want to discuss so that anywhere you feel we should improve on the last elections with the security architecture in place, then, we should be able to do, so that this particular one will be hitch- free”.
“On our part, we are going to provide adequate security that will secure everybody coming out to vote without being harassed and abused”. Abass said.
While appreciating some of the candidates for finding time to attend the meeting, the state police boss also urged political stakeholders to go back and talk to their foot soldiers of the need to maintain peace and allow a crisis free election.
Earlier in his address, the REC in the state had explained that the delay in the commencement of polls in the last Presidential and National Assembly elections was largely caused by some logistics problems. And promised that the commission has taken due diligence of the challenges and promised to improve in the coming Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
Prof. Egwu said, “We have learnt our lessons in the previous elections, and we are going to deliver on the early opening of polls”, Egwu assured.
While promising that the commission will strictly follow the electoral guidelines, he advised politicians to co-operate with the commission to deliver a free, fair and credible elections.
Some of the participants including Prof Bem Angwe, a gubernatorial candidate of the NNPP and his counterpart, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Engr. Roseline Ada Chenge all appreciated INEC and promised to tow the path of peace.
They called on INEC to improve on its logistics so that the elections will commence early to avoid late closure of polls.
