Ijaw National Congress (INC), an apex socio-cultural organisation of Ijaw nation worldwide, says its rescheduled national elections will hold on April 13.
This is contained in a communiqué issued after an expanded National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the organisation held on Thursday in Yenagoa and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Abuja on Friday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was called to address some urgent concerns, particularly on the state of preparedness of the Electoral Committee (ELECO) for the rescheduled national elections.
The communiqué said that the meeting was attended by the President and leader of INC, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, as well as other NEC members, members of the Board of Trustees (BOT) and members of the Conference of Ijaw Traditional Rulers and Elders (CITRE).
Others were members of the National Representative Committee (NRC), zonal executive committee members, chapter executive committee members and past presidents of the congress.
The communiqué stated that after a thorough review of the report presented by ELECO, members expressed satisfaction with the extent to which the committee was able to address the various concerns raised at a stakeholders’ meeting called by the Bayelsa governor on March 13.
It said that members consequently endorsed the report and agreed that based on the committee’s level of preparedness, the rescheduled national election should hold on April 13.
“Members were also satisfied with the level of readiness of ELECO in terms of preparation of sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the election.
“Members at the meeting emphasised the independence of ELECO to carry out its assignment without interference from other organs of congress except to receive logistics support from the NEC,” the communiqué stated.
It further said that CITRE members, in line with Article 14 (D) of the INC 2019 Constitution, is an advisory body like the BOT whose function on election matters was limited to clearing of nominees from the NEC and dealing with any crisis that may arise from the elections.
The communiqué also emphasised that NEC was willing to receive advice from CITRE, BOT and every other organ of the congress that were at liberty to filter the pieces of advice and execute same in the best interest of the organisation.
It, therefore, advised the general public to discountenance any information or directive that might run contrary to the position of ELECO and supported by the expanded NEC meeting.
By Deborah Coker
