By Kateng Daniel, Jos
The INEC National Commissioner incharge of bye-election in Plateau State, Prof. A. A Zuru has said the Independent National Electoral Commission is committed to free, fair, credible, inclusive, peaceful and transparent election.
Election would hold in the next 48 hours for the Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency and Pankshin south Constituency.
Prof. Zuru disclosed this on Thursday during a peace commitment for Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency and Pankshin South Constituency Bye election held at the Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace Centre, Jos.
He said “immediately after the expiration of the period for substitution and withdrawal of candidates as provided by law, the commission published the final list of 19 candidates sponsored by 11 political parties for both Constituency”.
“11 candidates are contesting for the Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency seat and 8 candidates for the Pankshin Federal Constituency seat”.
He emphasized that the 2019 Register of voters will be use for the bye-election with a total of 652,581 registered voters, Jos North 453,556 voters in 474 polling units consisting of 913 voting point, Bassa 145,904 voters in 145 polling units consisting of 296 voting points and Pankshin 53,121 voters in 62 polling units consisting of 109 voting points.
“Democratic elections is also a means of resolving conflict because when the popular choice of the people is elected, it provides a mechanism of healing the land.
“I therefore charge all of us not to succumb to the allure of misconstrued ethnicity and religiosity which are used to divide us, I will once again wish to assure all stakeholders that the Commission will continue to protect the transparency and integrity of our electoral process”.
He stressed that today’s meeting involves parties and their candidates to resolve, pledge, affirm and commitment to peaceful conduct during and after the Saturday, 26th February, 2022 bye election.
The Director, Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace Centre (DREP), Rev. Fr. Blaise Agwom urged all candidates, political party leaders and supporters to shun violence, shun the use of insultive and derogatory language and to conduct themselves peacefully and decently during and after the elections.
“This dialogue meeting with political parties and their candidates contesting for these elections became necessary because of our past experience of ugly events that have come to be associated with elections in our dear state”.
The Commissioner of Police, Bartholomew Onyeka who spoke on behalf of all the security agencies said “the electoral process of Plateau State is often characterized by thuggery, character assassination, blackmail, violence, killings and destruction.
“We are here to make sure that non of this evil act is displayed either by the contestants, political parties leaders and supporters, failure to abide by the rules of electoral process will never go unpunished”.
