The All Progressives Congress (APC) Directorate of Election Planning and Monitoring has demanded more transparency from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The party urged the commission to be open in its dealings ahead of the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The Director of the body and Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, made the demand at a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.
Reacting to the postponement of the elections by INEC, Fashola said there was need for the commission to keep Nigerians updated on preparations for the rescheduled elections.
He also demanded more transparency.
“As a result of the common pain shared by us all, we demand greater openness and transparency in the Commission’s preparations ahead of Saturday, 23 February 2019 elections.
“We believe that members of the public should know what steps INEC have taken with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to assess, take inventory of materials and what their conditions are,” he said.
He added that the commission should also let Nigerians know if all materials required for the elections were in the country and if not what plans it had to ensure that they were on ground.
He further added that the commission’s plans to redeploy and distribute materials ahead of elections should also be made known to Nigerians.
Fashola said INEC should also let Nigerians know what it encountered in the failed election attempt of the Saturday, 16 February 2019, and measures taken to overcome them.
He added that the commission should also confirm to Nigerians that the configuration of its card readers would be completed in readiness for the rescheduled elections.
The minister said that elections and political parties were primarily about people and that before the elections were postponed, millions of Nigerians had sacrificed their time, resources and convenience to perform their national civic duty only to be disappointed by the postponement.
He added that as a political party, the disappointment of the APC was doubled.
This, he said was especially so because unlike some who were privy to the postponement, the APC got to know of it alongside the public a few hours before the polls opened.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had a few hours to the commencement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, announced the rescheduling by one week of the elections earlier scheduled for Saturday, 16 February 2019.
By the postponement, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will now hold on Saturday, 23 February 2019, while the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections will be on Saturday, 9 March 2019.
Yakubu had said the decision to postpone the elections was taken after a meeting with INEC Commissioners, citing “logistics’’ problems as issues that prompted the postponement.
He stressed that postponing the elections was a difficult decision, but was necessary for successful delivery of the elections and to consolidate on Nigeria’s democracy.
– APA
