There will be no certificate of return for any candidate declared winner under compulsion- INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will not issue certificate of return to any candidate declared winner of an election under complusion.

The chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu made this known in Abuja during a meeting with the inter-agency consultative committee on election security and ahead of the gubernatorial and state Assembly elections on Saturday.

It would be recalled that there were widespread intimidation and harassment of  staff of the commission in the last presidential and National Assembly elections.

There was the case in Imo of Francis Ibeawuchi, an INEC returning officer for the Imo west senatorial election who said he was forced to announce Rochas Okorocha, Imo state governor, as winner of the poll.

Reacting to this, Yakubu said the commission will not tolerate the intimidation of its staff during Saturday’s elections.

“I am confident that working together with the security agencies, we will consolidate on the largely peaceful conduct of the presidential and national assembly elections while also taking decisive steps to deal with the minority of violators intent on disrupting the conduct of peaceful elections,” he said.

“However, the commission will not tolerate the act of holding our officials hostage and forcing them to declare winners under duress. Where such occurs, the commission will not reward bad behavior by issuing them certificates of return.”

The INEC chairman also stated that the commission had put in place necessary measures to ensure that voting starts at exactly 8am to enable electorates cast their votes, monitor as they are counted and listen as winners are announced.

He said materials for the election have been delivered to all states and the FCT and movement to the local government areas to be completed before Friday.

“By tomorrow, all materials and relevant personnel will arrive at the Registration Area Centres (RACs),” he said, adding: “With this arrangement, we are confident that all polling units will open at 8am nationwide.” He said.

The governorship election will hold in 29 states while 991 members of houses of assembly in all the states will be elected alongside six local government chairmen and 62 councilors in the FCT.