By Sarah NEGEDU
With barely days to the area council elections in the FCT, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is optimistic of a peaceful conduct of elections across the territory owing to its antecedent of conducting regular and well conducted Area Council elections in the past.
Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who gave the commendation when he addressed an expanded version of the monthly FCT Security Committee meeting, said the development has made the territory a leading light in the conduct of local government elections in the county.
Yakubu while commending all stakeholders for their role in the forthcoming elections particularly applauded the political parties for their conduct so far.
He said, “the commission is happy with the behavior of parties and candidates in the FCT. So far, there are no adverse reports of clashes between supporters of different parties and not many incidents of hate speech”
“I commend the stakeholders for their advocacy for peaceful elections and I appeal to political parties and candidates to continue to show maturity and decorum” Prof Yakubu added.
On area council election which will hold on the 12th of February 2022, the INEC chairman said that the commission had made adequate preparations for the smooth conduct of the exercise.
“With only nine days to go to the election, major activities have been concluded. Right now, the commission is only putting finishing touches to our preparations. Continuous Voter Registration was conducted over a period of 6 months and permanent voter cards have been printed and made available for collection. He also revealed that there are enough ad hoc staff, who have been engaged and trained and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to the various area councils.
With regards to election technology, Prof. Yakubu said that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, have been configured and ready to deploy and that election results will be uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV, in real time.
On the candidates vying for positions during the elections, Prof Yakubu said that following the period of substitution and withdrawal of candidates, the commission has listed 473 candidates sponsored by 14 political parties consisting of 110 candidates for the positions of chairman and vice chairman, while 363 candidates are contesting for the 62 Councillorship positions.
The INEC chairman also commended the FCT judiciary especially the FCT High Court for standing firm to the antics of forum shoppers and litigation happy individuals who often waste the commission and court’s time by litigating even the most improbable cases.
The FCT minister. Malam Muhammad Bello, who chaired the security meeting said members while reviewing the security situation of the FCT in 2022 discovered that collaborative security efforts with neighboring states to the FCT have proven to be very effective and will be intensified.
The committee, the minister said was reviewing its strategies to meet the challenges of banditry in the FCT and North Central zone of the country posed by criminals fleeing security onslaught in the northwestern zone.
