Politics

#NigeriaDecides: What INEC owes Nigerians for postponing elections – Sen. Abe

Published

6 years ago

February 16, 2019

The lawmaker representing Rivers South East Senatorial district, Magnus Abe, on Saturday said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) owed Nigerians a detailed explanation on its decision to postpone the Feb. 16 elections.

NAN reports that Abe said this in an interview with Newsmen in Port Harcourt while reacting to the decision of the electoral commission to shift the national polls.

“Election should be free, fair and credible and it has become clear to INEC that with the logistic challenges they are facing it will be impossible to hold the elections.

“I think INEC has done the right thing to postponed the elections and to enable it to prepare better.
“But I believe that INEC owes Nigerians a clear explanation to why the country would have to be subjected to this kind of challenge.
“The personal plans, financial fallout’s of this kind of decision are going to affect things in a whole lot.

“They (INEC officials) owe Nigerians a more detailed explanation about why this has to be done at this time,” Abe said.
Abe, however, urged all Nigerians to remain steadfast in their belief in the country.
“I believe there,is going to be a lot of positive development toward the postponement because it gives everybody time to prepare better.

“I also use this opportunity to urge the Court of Appeal to immediately use this window to finish the outstanding issues in Rivers State so that we have a clearer idea of what exactly the situation in our state would be moving forward,” Abe said.
DAILY POST had reported that INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, while addressing reporters at the press centre of the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, the nation’s Capital said that the polls would not go on as planned due to some challenges encountered by the commission.
He explained that the decision to postpone the polls followed a careful review of the implementation of the logistics and operational plans put in place for the exercise.