The Independent National Electoral Commission has warned politicians and the electorate in the Kogi State Assembly constituencies election to allow peaceful conduct of re-run election fixed for April 25 or forfeit being represented until 2019.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Jacob Jatau, who gave the warning in Lokoja on Tuesday during a stakeholders’ meeting, said the commission is fixing the re-run election for the last time.
According to Jatau, the coming election is the last opportunity allowed by the law to conclude the 2015 general elections.
He urged party leaders to talk to their members on the need to give room for the conduct of a peaceful and credible election.
Jatau said adequate security arrangement was being made by the commission towards free and fair election.
The REC said only voters with Permanent Voter Cards will be allowed to vote on that day.
He said accreditation of voters will be strictly electronic and not manual.
According to him, all lapses and complaints that prevented the election from holding and inconclusive on March 28 and April 11 had been addressed.
The REC listed Dekina/Bassa Federal Constituency and six state constituencies of Ajaokuta, Lokoja 11, Ofu, Dekina I, Dekina II and Igalamela/Odolu as where the supplementary election will hold.
Jatau promised that materials and officials will arrive polling units on time for the exercise.
Also, speaking at the forum, the state Commissioner of Police, Adeyemi Ogunjemilusi, said 5,119 policemen will be deployed to the six constituencies where election will be holding.
Ogunjemilusi said the policemen are made up regular and anti-terrorism policemen, adding that more attention will be paid to areas where pockets of violence were recorded during the previous elections.
Ogunjemilusi, who was represented by CSP Soji Idowu, warned politicians to play the game according to rules.
He said anybody that plays funny on that day will have himself to blame.
The state Coordinator of Women Affirmative Action, Mariam Bello, expressed support for the decision of INEC to use electronic accreditation for the election.
Bello urged security agencies to be alive to their mandate of protecting lives and properties.
Sunday Adewoye of the National Youth Service Corps lamented the ugly treatment meted out to some corps members in Dekina and Igala-Mela Local Government Areas during the April election.
Adewoye urged politicians and the electorate to see the corps members as their children on national duties.
He said: “These two areas are going to be volatile.
“Thugs waylaid corps members and threatened to kill them.
“These people have not repented.”
Adewoye said two corps members that were shot at Koton Karfe, Kogi Local Government Area during the April election were responding to treatment.
He said the NYSC would not want a repeat of the ugly incident during the April 25 re-run elections.