Following the killing of the Labour Party senatorial candidate for Enugu East, Barrister Oyibo Chukwu by gunmen, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the election billed for tomorrow.
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who broke the news at a media briefing held at the National Collation Centre at International Conference Center, Abuja on Friday, said March 11 has been fixed as the new date.
According to him the Commission has formally received an official notification from Labour Party over the unfortunate killing of its candidate in Enugu, pointing out that in keeping with the Provision of the Electoral Act 2022 INEC has to postpone the Enugu East Senatorial election on Saturday.
He said campaign for the Senatorial Election in the zone will continue alongside the Governorship and House of Assembly elections on March 11.
Pointblanknews.com reports that unidentified gunmen killed Chukwu on Wednesday night at Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu state along with his Personal Assistant.
According to Prof. Yakubu, “The second issue is the unfortunate incident involving the candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State. I can confirm that we have now received a formal communication from the party informing the Commission of the death of its candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District. The party also conveyed its intention to participate in the election for that constituency by replacing its deceased candidate. This request is in line with the provision of the law. For clarity, I wish to quote verbatim the provision of Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 as follows:
“If, after the time for the delivery of nomination paper and before the commencement of the poll, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief National Electoral Commissioner shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, countermand the poll in which the deceased candidate was to participate and the Commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election within 14 days.
“The Labour Party has provided satisfactory evidence of the death of its candidate. Consequently, the Commission has suspended the election in the senatorial district as provided by Law. We have already communicated this decision to our Enugu State office. Therefore, there will be no senatorial election in Enugu East Senatorial District made up of six Local Government Areas, 77 Wards and 1,630 Polling Units. The election will now be combined with the Governorship and State Assembly elections holding in the next two weeks on 11th March 2023. Materials already delivered for the senatorial election will remain in the custody of the Central Bank in the State until the new date for election.”
INEC Chairman also said the commission is making progress with the movement of materials to the various locations around the country.
“Having deployed these materials to the Local Government Areas, we are today devolving the deployment to the Registration Area Centers (RACs) so that early morning tomorrow the polls will open as planned. These RACs have been activated and election duty staff have started arriving in them.
“The Commission is aware of the situation in Imo State in the South Eastern part of the country where it was reported that some of the critical polling unit officials drawn from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have withdrawn their participation from some Local Government Areas as a result of the perennial insecurity. From the report we received from our State office, concerns have been expressed about the security situation in Osu Local Government Area, five Wards in Okigwe and six in Orlu. However, we have been assured that with enough mobilisation of security personnel to the area, it is possible for elections to hold in these locations. I have been in touch with the IGP who will brief us on their plans to secure these locations for elections to hold peacefully when he addresses us shortly.”
