Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has threatened to take certain politicians in Enugu State to court over wild allegations they made during the general elections.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Emeka Ononamadu, during a post-election media briefing at the INEC office, Independent Layout, Enugu yesterday, warned that INEC was not ready to condone reckless allegations that cast aspersions on the electoral process.
His words: “Although, certain political groups effortlessly tried to falsely label INEC, security agencies and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in an attempt to scuttle the process, the maturity exhibited by citizens was enough to send their plans to the cleaners.
“I am also studying those wild allegations for the possibility of seeking court redress because it is not only politicians that can always take INEC to court.
“INEC and its staff also have a name to protect; we are not going to tolerate reckless allegations that can cast aspersion on our democracy and electoral process. We are moving towards a direction where nobody will get away with any unsubstantiated allegation that rubs off on the credibility of an election.”
He thanked all stakeholders who participated in the election for displaying “a rare attitude in this era of extreme political rascality displayed in different states during this election, which made the job extremely difficult for most of my skilled colleagues in other states.
“This is a testimony that democracy is reaching its maturity stage in Enugu, and we hope that other parts of Nigeria will emulate the peaceful conduct exhibited during the general election.”
Ononamadu, who bemoaned voter apathy in Enugu, called on the people to objectively assess the activities of the commission in the state.
“While we had teething logistics challenges during the presidential election, we overcame all those challenges during the governorship election and became the first state to have all the 4,145 polling locations to open before 8am on election day.
“The only snag, which I did not know the cause, was voter apathy which saw less than half a million voters coming out to vote out of the 1.9 million registered voters and the 1.7 million voters with Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs).
“We wish to announce that we have fulfilled our promise to Nigerians living in Enugu. Now is the time to review our performance in the face of numerous challenges among which are some uncontrollable variables.
“We want you to be objective and fair in your assessment of our performance,” he said.
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