March 6, 2018

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ebonyi, on Tuesday inaugurated 19 different committees to drive the commission ‘s Elections’ Projects Plan (EPP), ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The committees are: Inventory Committee, Election Monitoring and Support Centre Committee, Electronic Dashboard Committee, Security Committee, Domestication of EPP Committee, among others.

The Ebonyi INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Godswill Obioma, inaugurated the committees at the commission’s state headquarters in Abakaliki.

He said that the action was in line with directive from the national headquarters of the commission.

According to him, the committees known as Elections’ Projects Plan task teams will carry out various responsibilities preparatory to 2019 general elections.

He said that each of the committees has specific activities, team leader, team members, time line and terms of references.

The resident commissioner described the inauguration as a ‘defining’ moment for the commission as it moved closer to the 2019 general elections.

He said: “The Elections’ Projects Plan is a document developed by INEC to drive the implementation of transparent elections for 2019.

“Therefore, the inauguration of the 19 Elections’ Projects Plan task teams is a defining moment for the commission in Ebonyi because they are going to drive transparent conduct of 2019 elections.

“INEC has developed a five-year strategic plan covering 2017 and 2021 and what this means is that whatever INEC does in terms of election and other activities are captured in the strategic plan.

“You have a daunting task to make the commission to succeed in the 2019 general elections and you must work hard within your committees to enable the commission achieve better result”.

The resident commissioner said that a monitoring team would be set up to ensure that various committees worked within the time line.

The INEC’s Administrative Secretary, Mr Charles Ezema, who responded on behalf of other heads of the committees, assured that the committees would carry out the assignments diligently and in accordance with terms of reference.

“The committees will not disappoint the commission on this very important assignment and we must work within the time line.

“What we have done today has helped our understanding to know that election is a process which can be reduced into strategic planning for efficient and effective result.

“It is important that we take our responsibilities seriously, especially now that we have 68 registered political parties to contend with, ” Ezema said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that activities expected to be performed by the task teams include: to domesticate the 2019 Elections Projects Plan in order to design a state-based 2019 EPP for Ebonyi, adopt final report of the inventory committee.

Other activities also include to set up state Election Monitoring Centre (EMSC), create Electronic Dashboard for state EMSC, reactivate periodic data – gathering for base line data, among others.

The task teams are expected to conclude all their assignments by April 4.