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Says all parties must subscribe to commission’s oath of neutrality
By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclosed that the 2023 general election will involve the nationwide deployment of over 1 million personnel and massive quantities of materials.
These materials, the Commission pointed out, will be deployed twice within a period of two weeks from INEC State offices to 774 Local Government Areas, 8,809 electoral Wards and 176,846 polling units across the length and breadth of the country.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this yesterday at the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Commission and the Road Transport and Maritime Workers’Union in Abuja.
The general election, Yakubu added, will also require over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,200 boats that will be accompanied by naval gunboats.
While describing the undertaking as ‘huge’, the INEC Chairman noted that it must be accomplished in the next 66 days, stressing that the Commission is resolute in doing so to give Nigerians a pleasant voting experience.
In the words of the Professor Yakubu, “The 2023 General Election will involve the nationwide deployment of over 1 million personnel and massive quantities of materials twice within a period of two weeks from our State offices to 774 Local Government Areas, 8,809 electoral Wards and 176,846 polling units across the length and breadth of our country.
“It will require over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,200 boats that will be accompanied by naval gunboats.
“This is a huge undertaking that must be accomplished in the next 66 days and we are resolute in doing so to give Nigerians a pleasant voting experience”, he stressed.
Continuing, the INEC Chairman assured
Nigerians that “we are determined that all polling units nationwide will open at
8.30am on Saturday, 25th February 2023
for the Presidential and National Assembly elections and on
Saturday, 11th March 2023
for the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections”.
Yakubu however pointed out that a new
requirement in the new electoral legal framework is that “everyone involved in election duties must subscribe to the INEC Oath/Affirmation of Neutrality.
“We will therefore require your members to swear and strictly adhere to this oath and the INEC Code of Conduct for Electoral Officials as your participation in the delivery of electoral logistics requires absolute neutrality and non-partisanship.
“The security agencies shall not only be available to escort all vehicles and boats to locations, they will also ensure the safety and protection of all election personnel and materials.
“As usual, we shall track the movement of all vehicles and boats electronically and in real time to ensure that election personnel and materials are not hijacked or diverted”, he said.
The INEC Chairman appealed to all the Unions and service providers to abide by the spirit and letter of the MoU and the contract agreements respectively.
His words, “Learning from the experience of the past, I would like to appeal to all the Unions and service providers to abide by the spirit and letter of the MoU and the contract agreements respectively.
“They must see their role as a national call to duty by ensuring that there is no failure on their part, especially on the eve of elections when it is too late for the Commission to make alternative arrangement.
“The Unions should keep an eye on your members to ensure that when they take personnel and materials to designated locations, they also bring them back at the end of the elections.
“Your contract is for both forward and reverse logistics”, he explained.
The yesterday’s signing of a revised MoU with the road and marine transport unions, according to him, “is a demonstration of our determination to implement key recommendations of the review exercise in order to enhance forward and reverse logistics in our electoral operations”.
He lauded the commitment of the Unions to INEC’s electoral processes and the consolidation of the nation’s democracy.
“In particular, we appreciate your collective and individual sacrifice to ensure that election personnel and materials arrive at designated locations early, especially during the recent Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections. “Together, we did it in Ekiti and Osun. It is now time to do it for the whole of Nigeria. We can do it and must do it for Nigeria.
“In the course of serving the nation, many of you have lost your vehicles to acts of arson and vandalism arising from violence and thuggery during elections.
“We appreciate that these vehicles are, in most cases, the sole means of livelihood for your members.
” While we appeal to political actors to call their supporters to order, I wish to assure you that we will continue to work with the security agencies to ensure the safety of your members and the protection of their vehicles and boats”, Yakubu said.
