January 10, 2018

The Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) and the Peoples Democratic Party have commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “for early release of timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections.”

The political parties gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

The APDA National Publicity Secretary, Mr Tosin Adeyanju, described the timetable and schedule of activities as a welcome development for political parties.

Adeyanju said that the early release of the timetable would enable political parties to have enough time to prepare for the elections.

He added that it had also cleared all rumours and speculations, especially date of primaries and other pre-election activities for political parties.

He noted that “we in APDA believe that the timetable would afford political parties the opportunity and enough time to adequately prepare and plan for the elections.

“This would help political parties to prepare for primary elections and tackle issues with less crisis.”

He pledged that APDA as a law abiding political party would follow the timetable as released by INEC, stressing that “we would use it as our Bible and Qur’an to prepare for the elections.’’

Adeyanju advised the Federal Government to ensure “adequate fund was released for INEC on time as the commission prepared for the elections

“Unnecessary delay in release of fund to the commission may result to challenges.’’

Adeyanju also advised INEC to step up preparation activities for the elections, particularly voter education and Continuous Voter Education.

“INEC should step up its voter education to ensure that citizens are properly informed about processes and activities toward the elections.

“The commission should further decentralise registration centre for the ongoing nationwide continuous voter registration.

“This should be done by creating more registration centres with the needed data capturing machines for voters to be registered on time.”

Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also
commended INEC on the timetable, saying it was a welcome development.

He told NAN that “as a party, we welcome the release of the timetable and schedule of actives. It is a welcome development.”

Ologbondiyan, however, said PDP was still studying the timetable and would soon make its position known.