Campaign Ban Is Still On, INEC Tell Politicians.

By Mukhtar Khalil

Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has called on the politicians, media, and political supporters groups to desist from engaging in electoral offenses before the 2023 general election.
INEC resident electoral commissioner in Kano state northwestern Nigeria Prof Riqua Arab Shehu made the call during a one-day workshop on “Electoral Reportage” organized by Kano Correspondents’ Chapel and sponsored by INEC in Kano.
He said that some politicians or their campaign groups are either deliberately or ignorantly breaching the new electoral law as amended by publicly campaigning for their candidates through media of mass communication before the stated date contained in the electoral law.
” It’s clearly stated in the law that the campaign by any candidates seeking for political office can start 150 days before the election.
” But it’s unfortunate, that many political parties and their candidates are already filling the airspace of so many broadcast stations especially Radio with their campaign through gingles etc”.
On the issue of new polling units, the resident’s electoral commissioner said INEC has increased the number of Polling Units in Kano from 8,074 to 11,222 for the first time in the last 25 years to meet up with the growth in population with some of them being relocated. 
He also stated that as of January 14th, 2022, only 77,255 of the 128,628 registrations are valid, leaving behind 40 percent as invalid which he blamed on ignorance of the process by the voters. He explained further that there are cases of multiple registrations due to the wrong understanding about who is actually to be registered in the recent exercise that includes those not registered, those changing locations, and those correcting their captured details, and not every voter. 
“Some people are registering more than once. I will blame that on their inability to understand that registration is not for everyone. 
“As of 14th of January, 2022 there were 77,255 valid registrations of all the registered figures while 40 percent are invalid. People should understand that this registration exercise is not for everybody but for those who have not registered before, those who want to change location, and those who want to correct their captured details. Those who have their permanent voters card don’t need to register again unless it is lost or destroyed” he stated. 
Speaking on electoral crimes, Risqua explained that anybody can commit such crime whether an INEC official, Security personnel, politician, journalist or any citizen. He, therefore, appealed to the public to avoid misinformation and making sensitive statements on media. 
He added that there is no reason why anybody should die because of politics. He called on radio stations to avoid allowing politicians to create ugly trends on air describing Kano as a very sensitive state that can destabilize the whole Northwest region.