DAILY POST recalls that INEC had in the early hours of Saturday announced the postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections billed to take place on Saturday. The commission said it has shifted the elections and the next week gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections to Saturday, 23rd February and Saturday March 9th respectively.
Agboke while speaking with journalists in Ibadan, the state capital insisted that the period for the collection of PVC has been closed, as he noted that the period of campaigns for the presidency and National Assembly have also closed.
He declared that all Presidential and National Assembly candidates contesting in the reschedule election cannot campaign before Saturday’s new date for the first round of the 2019 general elections.
He added that the postponement was necessitated by the acute shortage of election materials.
He said, “For example, in Oyo state, we received the full complement (election materials) for House of Representatives ballot papers and result sheets. And also, Oyo South and Oyo North senatorial districts ballot papers, with shortfalls in Oyo Central and then other sensitive materials like that.
“I am not a member of the committee that procured them. I am only the resident electoral commissioner. I’m only to receive these materials, and when they’ve not come, I can’t fabricate materials.”
He insisted that the commission has retrieved all the sensitive materials so far distributed.
He added, “As I speak to you, we have retrieved all the sensitive materials to the state office. We have tightened up the security. We have within our premises the full presence of various categories of the Nigeria Police Force; the people in the red cap, the people in the black cap, the regular police that you know. In fact, they have been reinforced with the presence of the Nigerian Army.
“They are all here, knowing fully well that we have all these materials back to the state office. So, the materials are intact, nothing has happened to them and nothing will happen to them.”
On the allegation by some politicians that election materials got to the APC without their knowledge, the REC said, “We were all there together with all the parties representatives as we were sorting, counting and deploying. We all left there together around 3am. So I do not expect that kind of comment (that INEC is mischievous) from any stakeholders.
“All the materials that left Ibadan were only those ones within Ibadan local government areas. And they are just maybe North East, Ibadan North, Ibadan South West, Lagelu or so. Those are the ones. The people from Oke-Ogun, far areas have not left when the announcement was made, and none of them has left since yesterday. Everything is back to the state office.
“It’s a situation somebody will just create to hit up the polity. Because as far as we are concerned, they have not been able to penetrate any of the systems here. So, there is nothing like that. As a stakeholder, one of the political parties stood up and confronted me, I told him to give me evidence, he couldn’t say anything further. Gentlemen, those are fake news, don’t join issues with them.
On the likelihood of the commission following reports that INEC got delivery of more PVCs last Tuesday, a day after the closure for its collection, Agboke said, “The period for the collection of PVC has been closed, the period of campaign has been closed. This period is for us to see the areas of inadequacies and try to resolve them. That’s all, somebody should not use that to their own selfish gain.
“There is no window for campaigns for political parties that are contesting for presidential and national assembly, there is still room for governorship and house of assembly. For the purpose of our time table, we have foreclosed the campaign for presidential and national assembly elections”.
