The Independent National Electoral Commission has raised alarm over the rising insecurity and violence in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states, where governorship elections are scheduled for November 11.
The commission has appealed to political parties and their candidates to refrain from “utterances and acts that may heat up the polity” and to respect the electoral process.
“The commission is concerned about the spate of insecurity and violence, including clashes among supporters of Political Parties and candidates in the forthcoming elections.
“In our engagement with political parties, the commission has constantly called on parties to rein in their supporters from actions capable of jeopardizing the peaceful conduct of elections in Nigeria.
”INEC earnestly appeal to all political parties and candidates to avoid utterances and acts that may heat up the polity.
”The commission will continue to closely monitor the situation and sustain its engagement with security agencies and stakeholders to ensure a peaceful conduct of elections in the three states,” said INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, in a statement on Sunday.
He also reminded political parties that they have until October 10 to upload the list of their polling units and collation centre agents on the INEC portal, which opened on August 24. He said only 55% of the expected total of 189,180 polling unit agents and 25.1% of the expected 15,804 collation agents have been uploaded so far.
“The online accreditation of Journalists commenced on August 24, 2023, and will close on October 22, 2023. So far, 45 media organisations have applied for accreditation.
”The commission also wishes to use this medium to encourage all interested media organisations to take advantage of the remaining window to apply on imap.inecnigeria.org before the deadline on October 22, 2023.
”For emphasis, late applications will not be entertained and there is no provision for manual accreditation anymore,” he added.
