The National Leadership of the INEC has commended the peaceful and successful conduct of the just concluded general election in Enugu state, describing it as exceptional and one of the best in the country.
The electoral umpire added that the exercise in Enugu State, unlike in some states, witnessed no case of “violence, snatching of ballot boxes or all sorts of electoral malpractices.”
The INEC commendation was made by the National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, during the presentation of certificates of return to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, his deputy, Mrs. Cecilia Ezeilo, and elected members of the Assembly, led by the Speaker of the House, Edward Ubosi.
Okoye, who congratulated the recipients, on behalf of the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, for their victory at the polls, said the exercise “is a formal statutory and confirmatory process that you have won an election in accordance with the constitution and electoral dictates.”
He also congratulated “the people of Enugu State for taking ownership of the electoral process and driving it in a peaceful and conducive atmosphere that fused power and sovereignty back to them.”
Earlier in his opening speech, the INEC state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Emeka Ononamadu, who rated the peaceful conduct of the elections in Enugu State high, “with all the promises of fairness, openness and neutrality intact,” maintained that the exercise “was a tortuous journey that did not come at zero cost, but, it is also a journey that the entire nation is poised to learn from Enugu.”
