This is according to the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who also disclosed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was already probing the commission’s officials in 20 states over alleged electoral fraud.
He said this during a quarterly consultative meeting with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.
Regarding the prosecution and probe of 205 of its officials for allegedly receiving part of the N23bn reportedly disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani-Alison Madueke, the INEC boss said he would continue to cooperate with the EFCC.
Yakubu said the last report given to him by the EFCC involved 16 states. He said the EFCC was already probing INEC officials in 20 other states
He said, “I want to say that this is the first time in the history of our elections that in one fell swoop, 205 officials were disciplined based on the interim report we received from the EFCC covering 16 states.
“Under the terms and conditions of service what we can do is to interdict them which means placing them on half salary and suspending them from work until their innocence or guilt is established. The last report covered 16 states and only last week I heard they had started prosecuting them.
“However, after receiving the report, we had a discussion with the EFCC and told them that for the outstanding 20 states, they should not submit any interim report to INEC but just prosecute them.
“Once they are taken to court, we activate the provisions of the terms and conditions of service. Whatever we need to do we will do even if it means getting rid of everybody in the commission and recruiting afresh for the purpose of the 2019 elections. We are committed to doing so.”
Giving a breakdown of the Continuous Voter Registration conducted between April and September 2017, the INEC boss said about 667, 103 persons registered to vote in the South-South geopolitical zone. The zone comprises Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers states.
The South-West came in second with 532,172 persons registered to vote while the North-West, which has seven states, had a combined 477, 056 registered voters.
The North-Central came in fourth with 374, 923 while the South-East which has five states recorded 352,942 voters.
In the North-East, 350,398 registered within the same period. Rivers State recorded the highest number of registered voters at 151, 398 while Lagos came second with 144, 076. Ondo recorded the lowest number with 29, 766.
In total, about 2, 786, 405 persons registered to vote between April and September. However, only 108, 752 had come forward to claim their cards.
Yakubu said eight million voter cards remain unclaimed. Yakubu lamented that out of the eight million PVCs were unclaimed nationwide, Lagos accounted for about one million.
He said, “Some of you will also recall that Lagos has recorded the least collection of PVCs not in terms of numbers but in relation to the numbers that registered. Out of the eight plus million PVCs still uncollected nationwide, over a million are uncollected in Lagos.”
The INEC boss said the voter apathy in Lagos was worrisome as various strategies employed by INEC seemed not to be working.
He said the last two by-elections in Lagos had recorded very low turnout. The INEC chairman said the commission was ready for the Anambra governorship election which comes up next month.
He said over 6,000 smartcard readers would be used for the election. The INEC boss said the commission would not be discouraged by the legal obstacles it was facing in the process of recalling the Kogi-West lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye.
Yakubu said constituents had the right to recall anybody they wanted to in a democracy.
The INEC boss also warned politicians seeking to run in 2018 and 2019 to stop campaigning as this was in contravention of the Electoral Act.
Get more stories like this on Twitter & Facebook
0 $type={blogger}
Post a Comment
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are happy to receive your opinion and request. If you need advert or sponsored post, We’re excited you’re considering advertising or sponsoring a post on our blog. Your support is what keeps us going. With the current trend, it’s very obvious content marketing is the way to go. Banner advertising and trying to get customers through Google Adwords may get you customers but it has been proven beyond doubt that Content Marketing has more lasting benefits.
We offer majorly two types of advertising:
1. Sponsored Posts: If you are really interested in publishing a sponsored post or a press release, video content, advertorial or any other kind of sponsored post, then you are at the right place.
WHAT KIND OF SPONSORED POSTS DO WE ACCEPT?
Generally, a sponsored post can be any of the following:
Press release
Advertorial
Video content
Article
Interview
This kind of post is usually written to promote you or your business. However, we do prefer posts that naturally flow with the site’s general content. This means we can also promote artists, songs, cosmetic products and things that you love of all products or services.
DURATION & BONUSES
Every sponsored article will remain live on the site as long as this website exists. The duration is indefinite! Again, we will share your post on our social media channels and our email subscribers too will get to read your article. You’re exposing your article to our: Twitter followers, Facebook fans and other social networks.
We will also try as much as possible to optimize your post for search engines as well.
Submission of Materials : Sponsored post should be well written in English language and all materials must be delivered via electronic medium. All sponsored posts must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail on Microsoft Word unless otherwise noted.
PRICING
The price largely depends on if you’re writing the content or we’re to do that. But if your are writing the content, it is $60 per article.
2. Banner Advertising: We also offer banner advertising in various sizes and of course, our prices are flexible. you may choose to for the weekly rate or simply buy your desired number of impressions.
Technical Details And Pricing
Banner Size 300 X 250 pixels : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Banner Size 728 X 90 pixels: Appears on the top right Corner of the homepage and all pages on the site.
Large rectangle Banner Size (336x280) : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Small square (200x200) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Half page (300x600) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Portrait (300x1050) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Billboard (970x250) : Appears on the home page.
Submission of Materials : Banner ads can be in jpeg, jpg and gif format. All materials must be deliverd via electronic medium. All ads must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail in the ordered pixel dimensions unless otherwise noted.
For advertising offers, send an email with your name,company, website, country and advert or sponsored post you want to appear on our website to omodjk(at)gmail(dot)com
Normally, we should respond within 48 hours.