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INEC fixes 2019 Presidential election for Feb. 16

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced February 16, 2019 as the date for the presidential elections in Nigeria.

The National Assembly elections will hold on the same date, while, Governorship and State House of Assemblies, as well as the FCT elections will hold two weeks later on March 2, 2019.

This was made known on Thursday by its National Commissioner in charge of South West, Prince Solomon Soyebi at a media briefing in Abuja.

 He said, “Our democracy is maturing and the commission believes that there should be certainty with regard to the timetable for elections. For instance, in the United States, general elections always hold on the second Tuesday of November in the election year.

“In Ghana, it’s the 7th of December of the election year, while in other places like Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Costa Rica and Switzerland, the dates are also known in advance,” Soyebi said while making the announcement.
He further stated that INEC decision to fix the date for the national elections for the third Saturday in February of the election year, followed by state elections two weeks later, was sequel to the provisions of Nigerian Constitution which states that elections should hold not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days to the end of the incumbent’s tenure.
Soyebi also stated during the briefing that INEC has received a report from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation, informing it that 23 electoral officers indicted over the investigation into the December 10Rivers State re-run elections have been charged to court.
He said, “The commission has repeatedly said that it will cooperate with security agencies for the prosecution of any of our staff found to have violated the integrity of the electoral process.
“Accordingly, at our meeting today, the commission decided to apply the provisions of the INEC Terms and Conditions of Service to all those charged to court, since it constitutes gross misconduct. The penalty for this is interdiction. All the 23 electoral officers will be placed on half salary and will not report for duty pending the determination of their respective cases by the court.”
Soyebi then promised Nigerians of INEC willingness to remain fully committed to the sanctity of the electoral process, assuring that the commission will never protect any of its staff found to have violated the provisions of the Electoral Act and its guidelines no matter how highly placed.

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