The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Monday, said that Nigerians and every lover of democracy should be worried over the way the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under President Muhammadu Buhari is handling elections.

This was contained in a statement signed by the governor’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.

The governor noted that INEC is messing up Nigeria’s democracy. He further said that INEC’s present attitude was a dangerous signal of what the electoral body might do in 2019.

Fayose said, “democracy in Nigeria is being threatened by INEC and this should call for national and international reflection.”

“Lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the entire world should be worried that after conducting inconclusive elections in Rivers State in March this year, INEC postponed the rescheduled elections twice.

“INEC had on June 20, after a meeting with relevant stakeholders, fixed June 30 as the new date for the conclusion of the poll.

“However, the electoral commission postponed the elections for the second time, claiming reports of violence, and one wonders how INEC will be able to conduct elections in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in 2019 if it has not been able to conclude elections in Rivers State in four months!”

“Nigerians had thought issues of violence, ballot snatching and electoral fraud had been put behind them only for them to be brought back frontally by the Buhari’s government.

“President Buhari should ask himself if he would have been elected  if the system then did not allow free and fair elections. The INEC Chairman, Prof.  Mahmood Yakubu, should also be worried if there would have been an INEC to head if the 2015 elections had been inconclusive.”

Mazi Emeka