INEC CHAIRMAN HAS REVEALED THAT THERE WILL BE NO CERTIFICATE OF RETURN FOR CANDIDATES DECLARED WINNER UNDER DURESS

The Independent National Electoral Commission has confirmed that candidates will not be issued certificates of Return in places where its officials are held hostage or forced to declare winners under duress in the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections which is set to hold tomorrow.

The commission has further threatened to record zero vote and cancel the results of polling units where its personnel deliberately failed to deploy the Smart Card Readers.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu revealed the above information during a meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security held at the commission’s Conference Room in Abuja on Thursday.

He added that the governorship election would be conducted in 29 states, state assembly poll is set to elect 991 members of Houses of Assembly in all the states of the Federation, 6 Chairmen as well as 62 councillors for the Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory.

The INEC chairman said that in addition to elections into 1,082 constituencies nationwide, the commission would conduct supplementary elections in 14 states of the federation covering seven Senatorial Districts and 24 federal constituencies.

The supplementary elections, he said, were necessitated by electoral fraud, violence and thuggery perpetrated by political thugs and politicians in the February 23 elections

The INEC chairman also stated that materials for the polls on Saturday had been delivered to all states and the FCT.

With this arrangement, Yakubu said the commission was confident that all polling units would open at 8am nationwide.