Ekiti 2018: INEC To Sanction Premature Campaigners

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it is scrutinising premature campaign for votes in the build up to the 2018 governorship election in the state, saying it is collaborating with security agents to ensure appropriate actions were taken against culprits.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Professor Abdulganiy Olayinka Raji, who explained this while briefing newsmen in Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday, noted that politicians in the state were already violating the Electoral Act, saying numerous camping posters and billboards in the state were pointers to this.

Professor Raji said politicians were engaged in subtle or overt campaigns ahead of the 2018 governorship poll, and threatened that the commission was ready to invoke the relevant sections of the law to bring offenders to book.

According to him, the INEC was working with security agents to probe the campaigners, and also hinted that media and broadcast stations would also be answerable to the law if they ran foul of it.

Raji, who resumed in Ekiti State as REC about one month ago, addressed journalists after his first meeting with stakeholders in the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).

He announced that 221,000 permanent voter cards were yet to be collected by prospective voters in Ekiti State while 500,000 people had collected theirs.

At the meeting with the political parties, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) shadow-boxed when they threw jabs at themselves while speaking at the meeting.

Gboyega Oguntuwase, the chairman of PDP in the state had charged the commission to resist manipulation and urged the new REC to maintain his integrity.

Oguntuwase said “God will help you to conduct a free and fair election. We pray that your name is not soiled in Ekiti, because some powers would be out to soil your good name. The Almighty will help you to achieve your goals.”

The PDP, through the chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Information, Dr. Samuel Omotoso, also said “we don’t know any unholy support; all we are asking for is fairness and a level playing field and strict adherence to the Electoral Act.”

The publicity secretary of APC in the state, Chief Taiwo Olatunbosun, in his speech at the meeting said the state could, through proper budgeting, raise rice production in the state so as to forestall the distribution of rice.

Olatunbosun and another chieftain of APC, Kayode Babade, pledged that members shall be peaceful and abide by the laws governing the conduct of elections, to prevent violence in the state.