At a meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) on Tuesday in Abuja, INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made this statement.

Yakubu asked political leaders to desist from conduct that may taint the poll or risk the security of INEC employees, observers and other stakeholders.

With the exception of Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo, and Osun, where the election was held outside of the regular election calendar, he claimed that all 28 states will hold governorship elections.

He added that the state Houses of Assembly election would hold in all the 993 state constituencies across the country.

“Unlike the last elections involving 470 constituencies (one Presidential, 109 Senatorial Districts and 360 House of Representatives seats), the state elections will involve 1,021 constituencies (28 Governorship and 993 State Assembly seats).

“There will also be more candidates involved and more collation centres to protect. They are also local elections involving keen contests.

“It is therefore important for parties and candidates to speak to their agents and supporters to see the elections as a contest and not war.

“They should refrain from acts of violence that may mar the elections or compromise the security of our personnel, observers, the media and service providers,’’ Yakubu said.

The INEC Chairman commended the security agencies for their professional conduct during the Feb. 25 presidential and National Assembly election, saying that INEC looks forward to an improved performance in Saturday’s election.

“The commission is encouraged by the directive to state Commands by the Inspector General of Police to handle all cases of electoral offences expeditiously.

“We look forward to receiving the case files. We will immediately set up a legal team to handle such cases in earnest,’’ Yakubu said.

The political parties are; Young Progressives Party (YPP), Action Democratic Party (ADP), All People’s Party (APP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), and  Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

This came ahead of the governorship and House of Assembly elections, slated for March 18, 2023, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

At a press conference held in Ikeja on Monday, the governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, and the leader of ARPP, Mr. Ajayi Adebayo, explained that the parties reached the decision after a thorough analysis of the performance of the APC in Lagos.

From this end, the governorship candidates of APP, Chief Adeyemi Abiola, Adenipekun Adekunle (ZLP), Kupoluyi Funmi, (APM), Ishola Bamidele, (ADP), steppes down their governorship ambitions to declare their support for Governor Sanwo-Olu.

Adebayo added that they can not sacrifice the various landmark achievements of the Sanwo-Olu administration on the altar of bitter politicking, adding,” The governor’s consistency as a progressive democrat is worthy of due commendation and continuity is key.”

The parties said that Sanwo-Olu had delivered on his social contract with the people of the state through his THEMES mantra.

“It’s worthy of note that he literally saved the country from the scourge of COVID-19 through proactive measures that underscored his responsive and responsible attributes.

“Among others, massive road construction,  investments in education, healthcare services, the environment, youth empowerment, tourism, public transportation, housing, science, and technology need to be consolidated during his second term.

“It makes a whole lot of sense for Lagos state to be in tune with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s presidency at a time like this to achieve our age-long desires and lofty aspirations.

“Sanwo-Olu’s message of Greater Lagos Rising reverberated with all and sundry and we can safely conclude that we have in him a governor who is resolutely committed to taking our state to greater heights in the years ahead.

“Lagos state at a time like this is better entrusted in the hands of experienced and patriotic leaders.

“History is taking place today. Today is the day when political parties in Lagos come together to make history as political parties officially declared their support for the re-election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat.”

INEC is contesting a request made by Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party, LP, about the BVAS used in the election.

Inuwa, who opposed the application, claimed it would cause the governorship and state house of assembly elections, planned for Saturday, to be postponed.

He  told the court that there were about 176, 000 BVAS machines that were deployed in polling units during the presidential election.

“Each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which we need to configure for the forthcoming elections. It will be very difficult for us, within the period, to reconfigure the 176,000 BVAS.

“We have already stated in our affidavit that no information in the BVAS will be lost as we will transfer all the data in the BVAS to our backend server.

“We need the BVAS  configured. So, granting this application will be a clog in the process and may delay the conduct of the elections”, INEC’s lawyer, Inuwa, SAN, pleaded.

After listening to the parties, Justice Joseph Ikyegh adjourned ruling on the matter till Wednesday.

The court issued the restraining order in the ruling it gave on Friday granting permission to the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and Obi to inspect the sensitive materials used for the conduct of the February 25 election.

Both Atiku and Obi obtained the order to challenge the outcome of the election which they alleged was marred by fraud and other irregularities.

INEC on March 1 declared the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu as the winner of the election but the PDP and the LP candidates are contesting the outcome.

They subsequently filed separate ex parte applications, praying to be granted access to inspect sensitive materials that INEC used for the conduct of the presidential poll.

But INEC, in a motion on the notice filed on March 4, asked the court to vary the order restraining it from tampering with materials used for the election.

The commission said it needed to reconfigure the BVAS for the next round of elections which would be held on Saturday.

Nigeria has 176,846 polling places, but only the All Progressives Congress APC, which is currently in power, and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, along with the Labour Party LP, appear to have agents in more than 95% of those places, Vanguard reports.

The 2023 presidential election is scheduled to holds February 25, which is in about four weeks from now.