INEC, UNDP Partners, Hold Induction Retreat For Administrative Secretaries

By Gbenga Davies

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has partnered United Nation Development Commission, UNDP, towards achieving a free, fair, credible and efficient election.

INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who was represented by INEC National Commissioner, Election and Party Monitoring Committee (EPMC), Sam Olumekun, at the induction retreat for administrative secretaries of the Commission, said it has reached assurances from security agencies to ensure a secured election. The retreat is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

He said: “We all should be bothered that people keep attacking INEC facilities, but we have assurances from security agencies that they will secure the election and so we rely on that.”

  

Yakubu reiterated that the Commission’s allegiance is to the country, adding that its loyalty is to Nigerians who want free, credible and verifiable elections.

He warned staff of the Commission to be neutral and professional in their conduct in preparations for the election.

   

Yakubu also stated that the combination of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal have come to stay as a means of voter accreditation and transmission of election results.

Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, said the improvement recorded in successive elections in the current dispensation and recent conduct of the off-season governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states raised the bar of election administration and management in the country with attendant positive perception of the voting public that their votes would count at the elections.

In his goodwill message, Mr Deryck Fritz, the Chief Technical Advisor, UNDP, said the peaceful transfer of power was inextricably linked to processes and outcomes that were accepted by the political actors, civil society and the populace at large.

“INEC, as the constitutionally mandated electoral management body, must be and also be seen to be the impartial and neutral arbiter of the electoral contest.