The Resident Electoral Commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commissioner in Edo State, Anugbum Onuoha, has warned aspirants and political parties to stop campaigning for the governorship election with immediate effect or face sanction.
The REC, who stated this on Monday in Benin, said that the commission was yet to lift the suspension on the campaign, noting that parties and candidates were expected to begin campaigning on April 24.
He said political parties were not expected to campaign publicly for the primary election as it is an internal affair of the parties.
He said the practice was not in line with the INEC timetable, urging them to put a stop to it. He urged all the political parties and aspirants to pull down billboards, signposts as well as adverts on television and newspapers.
The REC said, “I am calling on the aspirants and the 16 political parties to take part in the September 21 election to comply with the timetable of the election. They are not supposed to campaign publicly for the primary election. It is against the law.
“I will urge them to pull down their banners, and billboards and stop running jingles on radio. They should also stop television and newspaper adverts. If they do not comply with this directive, we would have no other option than to sanction them,” he added.
He said the role of INEC in the primary election was to monitor and supervise proceedings and are not expected to announce results as primaries are mainly an internal affair of the parties.
Onuoha said his duty was to do a report and send it to the headquarters of the commission, adding, “We were present at the APC primary election. We saw what happened and we will present our report to Abuja.”
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