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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has come out to clear the air on the controversy that greeted the conduct of Saturday, November 16, governorship election in Kogi state.
         According to reports, INEC has said it lived up to its constitutional mandate in the conduct of the governorship and supplementary elections in the state. The director, Voter Education and Publicity (VEP) in Kogi office of the commission, Ahmed-Bagudu Biambo, disclosed this at a post-election dialogue on Kogi state governorship election on Thursday, December 5, in Lokoja. The dialogue was organised by an international non-governmental organisation, Search For Common Ground, for electoral stakeholders to address unresolved issues arising from the elections. Biambo, who absolved INEC of any wrongdoing, said the commission had properly organised, supervised and conducted the elections including the supplementary elections in line with its constitutional mandate. He said the commission provided all the electoral materials, the logistics and ensured that they were deployed on time to the various polling units, and that accreditation and voting commenced at the right time. Biambo said for the violence, thuggery and other malpractices that erupted in the latter part of the exercise, what went wrong and why INEC could not be held responsible as it would not have answers to the questions. The state director of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Abdullahi Mohammed, said there was a missing link in the nation’s electoral system and that possibly explained the widespread violence during the election. He said the agency was conducting an independent review of the election to identify what transpired, adding that though there were issues, he believed the issues were surmountable.