ELECTION TIME TABLE: Don't Stampede Us, Says INEC

The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) today in Abuja said it would not be stampeded over the release of the anxiously awaited time table for the forthcoming 2011 general elections.

The Director of Public Affairs in the commission, Mr. Iorwuese Umenger, who spoke to P.M.NEWS inside his office at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, stated that there is no law mandating INEC to release the time table today as being speculated by a section of the media.

Umenger decried the pressure on the electoral body over the release of the election timetable, noting that the commission will notify Nigerians of the election details when they are ready.

According to him, “we cannot be stampeded into the release of the election timetable. Regardless of the time constraint, we at INEC have pledged to do our work within the ambit of the law. So nobody can stampede us into releasing a document which we are still working on. There is no law which mandates us to release it today.”

Speculations have been rife over the release of the time table with some newspapers saying that the time table will be released today.

—Nnamdi Felix / Abuja