The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has hinted that it would conduct the Anambra central senatorial election before the governorship polls slated for November, 2017.
This is as the commission will today inaugurate its 2019 Election Project Committee which will be saddled with the task of determining the budget for the conduct of the general election.
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu said yesterday in Abuja that the commission can only come out with a budget for the election after arriving at the election project as contained in its new strategic plan.
Yakubu, who spoke after a meeting with the ambassador of the United States of America to Nigeria, Stuart Symington noted that the commission would not request for any help from the outside world for the conduct of the 2019 election, adding that the Nigerian government will foot all the bills, since according to him, the election is a sovereign issue.
He allayed fears of any interference from the outside world, assuring that that the Commission would conduct the election to the satisfaction of Nigerians whom he said, would determine who their leaders will be.
The INEC boss described the meeting with the American ambassador to Nigeria as a normal process, adding that it only dwelt on the strides recorded by the commission in conducting a free and fair election in 2015, despite the tensed situation, stressing that the meeting has nothing to do with interference in Nigeria’s election.
“We never asked for assistance from any country to conduct our elections. We are very clear in our mind that elections are sovereign issues. INEC can never go to any country to ask for help to conduct elections in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government is responsible for the conduct of elections. Because it is a sovereign issue, we leave it as such.
“Only Nigerians can determine who becomes their leader at any level without the interference of the outside world and we are fully optimistic that we will actualize that.
BY: EZEOCHA NZEH
