The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yahaya on Tuesday internationalised the call for the immediate passage of the Electoral Offences Commission Bill which has continued to gather dust on the shelves of the National Assembly.
Standing in the ornate chambers of the Chatham House, London on Tuesday, the INEC Chief repeated the appeal on the National Assembly to urgently pass the bill before it, a move which he said would further consolidate the INEC’s war against election offences in the country.
Yahaya insisted that the Commission is poised to conduct the general assembly as scheduled adding that everything is ready, even as he assured that Nigeria would have the best ever election on Fenruary 25 and March 11, 2023.
He said INEC has taken delivery of the BVAS devices that would be deployed at the election, and that the Commission has tested each and all of these equipment expressing confidence in the capacity of the devices to deliver a free and fair election in Nigeria.
Addressing the issue of vote buying, Prof Mahmood Yahaya said vote buying is an indication that Nigeria’s democracy is growing and politicians are beginning to see that votes ae beginning to count thereby resorting to compromising and inducing the voter with monetary or any other considerations to ensure they get their votes.
He said this would only be curbed by the Electoral Offences Commission (EOC), which would try anyone caught flouting any electoral laws of the country.
He said Nigeria will not disappoint the world as everything needed to deliver on a free, fair and transparent general elections.