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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it “will not be teleguided” and will therefore go ahead with the conduct of Saturday’s Edo state governorship election.
On Wednesday, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Police urged the commission to “consider the need for possible postponement of the election in order to enable security agencies deal decisively with the envisaged terrorists threats”.
But the commission issued a statement on Thursday to say it was 97 percent ready for the election, and there was no going back.
The statement read:
“After carefully weighing all the consequences and parameters of postponing the Edo governorship election as advised yesterday by spokespersons of the Police and Directorate of State Security (DSS), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decided to go ahead with the conduct of the election as scheduled for Saturday, 10th September 2016,” read the statement, released by Nick Dazang.
“Addressing press men at the Edo State office of the Commission this afternoon, the National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity Committee of INEC, Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, who expressed the determination of the Commission to go ahead with the election, disclosed that as at yesterday, the Commission had reached not less than ninety seven per cent level of preparation for the conduct of the election.
“Except the actual conduct of the election, he explained that the Commission had scrupulously implemented all the items listed in the Timetable And Schedule of Activities for the EDO governorship election which it issued in March this year.
“Prince Soyebi stressed that the Commission would not be teleguided and that it would not do anything that would mortgage Nigeria’s democracy.
“He further emphasized that the Commission robustly considered the implications of demobilizing and arrived at the fact that it was more expensive to do so.”