Kogi - The Chairman of Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission (KOSIEC), Mr Abraham Olaniran, says the Local Government election will hold on May 4, 2013.
Olaniran said this at a stakeholders’ forum comprising representatives of various political parties in the state, in Lokoja on Wednesday.
He said that the commission had got the nod of the State Government to conduct the election.
Commenting on the delay in holding the poll , Olaniyan attributed the development to “human error”, and assured political parties and electorate that ``the State Government is fully ready for the election this time around’’.
The chairman promised that the commission would strive by all means to conduct its own on May 4.
``We cannot be the black sheep among the comity of states. We will do our own. We want to ensure the conduct of a free, fair and peaceful election.
``We do not want anybody to be disenfranchised,’’ he said.
Olaniran implored officials of the various political parties to play the game by the rules to avoid pointing unnecessary accusing fingers at one another.
He restated the commitment of the commission to be fair to all the participants in the conduct of the election.
According to him, the commission has no mandate to mutilate or falsify election results compiled and brought to it from the polling stations and collation centres.
He added that the commission had no pre-determined results.
``Please, let us play the game by the rule. Nobody will tamper with your results. This commission is working for the 56 registered political parties in this state.’’
Olaniran noted that though he and members of the commission were brought on board by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the leadership of the party would not compel them to do what was wrong.
He said that members had their names and integrity to protect.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the council polls had been rescheduled twice.
It was earlier scheduled to hold on July 6, postponed to Dec.8 before the present date.
NAN