Violence Will Not Be Tolerated During Edo Polls – INEC

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has come out to affirm that security agencies will guarantee that everything is under control regarding the identified hotspots in Edo ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.

Mr. Festus Okoye, National Commissioner in Charge of Information and Voter Education of INEC revealed this recently when he featured in the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN), Forum in Abuja.

According to him, voters must have confidence that they can go out on election day to cast their ballots without any major challenge.

He added that there has been a stakeholders’ meeting with all the political parties and civil society groups involved, so peace is all the polls will preach.

His words, “We have had meetings with the state’s Inter agency Consultative Committee on Election Security chaired by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), and co-chaired by the Commissioner of Police.

“They have assured us that they have everything under control that they are going to provide adequate security; we just came back from Edo state yesterday (Sept. 16), with the chairman of INEC.

“We had a stakeholders’ meeting with all the political parties with civil society groups and organisations and also there was the peace pact that was signed by the political parties.

“When we were living Edo, things have calmed down a little bit and we hope and pray that that calmness will be translated into calmness on election day.

“This is because one of the biggest challenges we have is, the moment people disengage from the electoral process, it becomes a huge problem.”