2023 electon will hold as scheduled, FG assures

The general elections will take place as scheduled next month, the federal government announced Tuesday.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, provided the guarantee at the 17th Abuja meeting of President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecard series from 2015 to 2023.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, warned that the 2023 elections could be postponed or cancelled if the nation’s growing wave of election-related insecurity was not contained. The minister’s assurance followed INEC’s warning.

At the certification of election security training resources in Abuja, Professor Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, the Chairman of the Board of The Electoral Institute TEI, spoke in place of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of INEC, saying that “if the insecurity is not monitored and dealt with decisively, it could ultimately culminate in the cancellation and/or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies to hinder declaration of elections results and precipitate a constitutional crisis.

“This must not be allowed to happen and shall not be allowed to happen. Therefore, security personnel in particular and all elected officials, in general, must be security-conscious and alert to unusual activities in their environment and must be fully equipped to deal with any challenge at all times.”

But Mohammed insisted that the elections would go ahead and added that the Federal Government was aware of INEC’s collaboration with security forces to guarantee a smooth election process nationwide.

Mohammed spoke as the INEC clarified security-related and election-related concerns and sought the support of all stakeholders for credible elections in response to the electoral body’s fear over poll postponement or cancellation. According to a source who spoke with Vanguard yesterday, the commission also plans to provide political parties access to the voter registry.

Mohammed said, “Let me use this opportunity to respond to inquiries from the media over a widely-circulated report, credited to an INEC official, that the 2023 general elections face a serious threat of cancellation due to insecurity.

“The position of the Federal Government remains that the 2023 elections will be held as planned. Nothing has happened to change that position. We are aware that INEC is working wth security agencies to ensure that the elections are successfully held across the country.

“The security agencies have also continued to assure Nigerians that they are working tirelessly to ensure that the elections are held in a peaceful atmosphere. Therefore, there is no cause for alarm.”