![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/INEC-advocates-three-year-jail-term-for-vote-buyers-sellers.jpg\")
<\/p>\nYakubu, represented by Mr. Mohammed Haruna, a National Commissioner, made the observation at the forum on \u201cMedia Coverage of the 2019 General Election\u201d organised by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in collaboration with INEC, on Wednesday in Abuja, NAN reports.<\/p>\n
He said since the end of the general elections, there were series of review by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), domestic and foreign election observers that monitored the poll.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough the reviews of the elections had been generally positive, they have also been critical of its conduct in several aspects, notably the prevalence of vote buying, violence, poor voter turnout, etc.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the CSOs, domestic and foreign election observers have been reviewing the elections, the Nigerian media have yet to do so on a collective basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cHence today\u2019s forum which is being organised by the NUJ in collaboration with INEC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yakubu said as a critical stakeholder in the country\u2019s democracy, he hope the media would tell INEC frankly and objectively where it went right or wrong.<\/p>\n
He recalled that during a world conference in Abuja on Feb. 27 the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, rejected INEC\u2019s declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn rejecting the result, he described it as an \u201celectoral fraud\u201d and \u201cthe grand theft of the people\u2019s will.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo days ago, 75 of the 91 registered political parties passed a vote of confidence in INEC\u2019s Chairman, and by extension, on INEC for the conduct of the elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the two cannot be right at the same time. Hopefully, at the end of today\u2019s forum we will find out who is right. In telling us who is right I am sure the media will do so with facts and figures,\u201d Yakubu said.<\/p>\n
The Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said the forum provided the opportunity for stock-taking.<\/p>\n
Oyekanmi said the commission was deeply grateful for the tremendous support it received from the media before, during after the 2019 general elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we prepared for and eventually conducted the general elections, we read, listened to and appreciated many objective and excellent narratives and analyses about the electoral processes and what the commission did in the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we have also been confounded by the outright lies, fake news and subjective stories and views written and expressed by some media practitioners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the opportunity to dwell on one or two examples will come later on in this programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, we are all challenged and concerned about the problems associated with the social media and I believe it is our collective duty to find lasting solutions to this menace,\u201d Oyekanmi said.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, has said the reviews of the 2019 general elections have been generally positive, but not without some concerns. Yakubu, represented by Mr. Mohammed Haruna, a National Commissioner, made the observation at the forum on \u201cMedia Coverage of the 2019 General Election\u201d organised by the Nigerian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-115163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-inec"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/106062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}