The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) has declared that it was

ready to conduct a free and fair election starting from today.

INEC’s national commissioner in charge of publicity, Prince Adedeji Shoyebi, who stated this in an interview, said that the commission would also not allow unauthorised persons, including governors, ministers and other groups monitor the election on today.

According to INEC, only registered election observers will be allowed to monitor the National Assembly elections and the subsequent elections.

Shoyebi agreed that cancellation of election results as a result of violence could be a double-edged sword, adding that some persons could manufacture violence where they were facing defeat.

He said that elections would not be cancelled solely on the basis of outbreak of violence.

He also declared that violence had never been one of the strong criteria to be used in cancellation of votes in the general election.

“This commission is not using violence as criterion for cancelling elections; we want to say this outright so that at least, people will not go out and start manufacturing violence to really mar the process.

“So, anybody who embarks on violence and believes that he is going to disrupt the election is wasting his/her time. There are so many guidelines here which have spelt out what could lead to cancellation and violence is not one of them. The most important one which we have said is that wherever you have more voters that are accredited or more ballot than accredited voters, the election stands annulled.

“That’s exactly the fundamental one, but violence is not a platform for cancellation of results. We have not really taken decision on violence as a factor that will lead to cancellation of election, I have told you we are working within the law and that is not even within the law,”he said.

On those who are authorised to monitor the elections, Prince Shoyebi said that only registered monitors would be allowed.

“I want to tell you, anybody who is going to call him/herself as election observer must first register with the commission and must have our permission.

“This time around, we have said, the security agencies have said it, there is nothing like government monitoring team at state, federal or local level. The role of all these leaders, including governors, minister, senators and what have you, on the election day, is to go and vote and go back home, nothing more than that. What I am saying is that they are all voters once they have their voter card, unless you have come to INEC here to register as an observer and we have accredited you.

“As you are aware, we have domestic observers, we have foreign observer and same thing with the media. We have foreign media, we have local media and all these will be fully accredited. What we will have on the field that day will be accredited observers, journalists, polls officials, security agents, and they are going to be properly identified this time around,” he added.

When reminded that governors are chief security officers of their states, Shoyebi said that they are stakeholders in the democratic space, adding that such leaders would not complicate INEC’s search for free and fair election.

“Well, I agree with you that states governors are the chief security officers of the states, but I want to point out that they are also stakeholders in the electoral process.

“The chief security of a state cannot be superior to chief security officer of the country. The law now is a national or federal law. He has the right to secure his state, but this particular law involves all the stakeholders, including the armed forces, the police, army, navy, air force, the SSS, the civil defence corps, the Federal Road Safety Corps, fire service, the customs, immigration and what have you,” he explained.

He further appealed to Nigerian to give the commission a chance to prove its capability to conduct a free and far election.

“It is a new electoral process, and I want to start by saying this, my appeal to Nigerians is to be very, very calm and give the commission a chance. We know that they are eager for the general elections, their determination comes to bear during the just-concluded compilation of voter registration exercise.

“I want to assure that even though there might be initial teething problems, they should not be deterred. It is the same type of resilience they used during the voter registration exercise that we want to be transmitted into the elections itself. This is the only way by which Nigerians can take possession of the process, the process is theirs. It is a Nigeria project, not just INEC alone. All of us have a role to play and if we play it very well and very legitimately, I want to assure you that we are all going to have a very credible and fair election which all of us would be proud of.”