The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kogi State has warned party supporters destroying campaign billboards of candidates, saying it will not tolerate such acts.
Speaking at a meeting with the media and Civil Society Organisations in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, the resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Longpet said, the umpire consider campaign billboards destruction as heinous and an infraction on Electoral Act.
The interactive meeting was to show INEC’S preparations, low-level of PVC collection and potential threats to electoral violence in the state.
According to him, a particular candidate’s billboards were defaced over night in the Local Government Council, noting that such ‘lawless’ act by rival political parties in the state could trigger violence prior to elections as “peaceful elections border on the conduct of political actors” in the State.
He promised to investigate the rival political party and report to the Police for onward action to serve as deterrent to would-be violators.
He insisted on a level playing field for all political parties in Kogi State as well as the use of state-owned media warning that INEC will not allow unhealthy manner of campaigns in the up coming elections to discredit the process.
He said: “All electoral offenders would be prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the electoral act.
He warned that sections 91 -97 of the electoral act strictly forbid the use of thugs to disrupt rallies, campaigns in places of worship, among other offences as criminal acts under the electoral law.
On the PVC collection rate so far, Dr Longpet said out of about 52,000 uncollected PVCs in 2019, only a fraction of the figure has been collected by the registrants while a large amount of PVCs still remain with INEC in spite of the intensified efforts by the Commission.
The commission still calls on the people who had registered for the PVCs to come forward to INEC offices and registration areas for immediate collection of the unclaimed permanent voters cards (PVCs).
The REC cited a particular Local Government area in the state where only 8 persons out of 35,000 PVCs registrants have collected the PVCs adding that collection of PVCs, which had begun since November 12 continues till 2 January, 2013.
He called on the people of the state particularly critical stakeholders such as the media and civil society in the state to be in the vanguard of creating public awareness on the on-going collection of the permanent voters cards, which the electoral Commissioner described as an important step to an all-inclusive and credible elections in Nigeria.
