The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that there is no reason to remove the the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) in Imo State, Prof Sylvia Agu, insisting that complaints against Agu by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), Athan Achonu, were based on mere suspicion.
Oyekanmi said: “As far as we are concerned, we haven’t seen anything to implicate the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Imo State.”
The spokesperson for the INEC chair noted that the Commission took disciplinary actions against its RECs in Abia, Sokoto and Adamawa states during the general elections, after it confirmed that the officials acted outside the provisions of the electoral umpire.
“The REC will conduct the election in Imo, Oyekanmi declared.
He further stated: “We don’t have any reason to remove her (Agu) from there and we don’t have any evidence that implicate her or prove any allegation that is being alleged at this time.
“The Commission takes its responsibility seriously and we don’t joke with the conduct of elections, and when there are complaints against our officers, we also don’t joke with complaints but you must provide evidence that our officers are culpable.”
Oyekanmi assured the political parties in the election that INEC will be fair and unbiased.
“The assurance we are giving to all political parties is that we are not going to allow any pandering towards any interest in this election; our interest is to conduct free, fair and credible elections,” he said.
The INEC chair spokesperson added that the Commission has deployed nine additional RECs and two national commissioners to each of the three states where governorship elections will hold on Saturday, November 11, 2023.
He also revealed that 46,000 staff of the commission have been deployed to the three states while sensitive and non-sensitive materials including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines have been delivered in the three states.
Oyekanmi said there was no reason to doubt the capacity of security agencies, assured voters in the three states – Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi, where the elections will hold on Saturday that the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) would work on Saturday
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, last Sunday, redeployed Imo State CP Barde for “neutrality sake”.
This followed allegations by the Organised Labour that Barde was complicit in the attack on the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero in Imo.
Ajaero, who was in Owerri, to lead protests against the State Government, despite subsisting court order restraining the organised labour from embarking on any industrial action in Imo State, was reportedly attacked by irate members of the Nigerian Labour Congress, who were said to be against his high handedness and poor leadership style.