Earlier this Tuesday afternoon, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC have organized the commission’s first regular consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations in the Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja.

The conference was targeted at having important deliberations between the INEC and the CSOs in the first regular quarterly consultative meeting for the year 2025.

The chairman , Independent National Electoral Commission , Professor Mahmood Yakubu chaired the meeting today Tuesday where certain deliberations were made.

Accordingly , the deliberations made was designed to reshaping and improving the commission service delivery to the recent day electronical and technological advancements as gathered by 9News.

The original copy reads thus:

REMARKS BY THE CHAIRMAN, INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC), PROF. MAHMOOD YAKUBU, AT THE FIRST REGULAR CONSULTATIVE MEETING WITH CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS HELD AT THE INEC CONFERENCE ROOM, ABUJA, ON TUESDAY 4TH FEBRUARY 2025

National Commissioners
Leaders of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)

The Secretary to the Commission
Other Senior Officials of the Commission
Members of the INEC Press Corps
Ladies and Gentlemen

I welcome you all to our first regular quarterly consultative meeting for the year 2025. It is therefore appropriate to start by wishing you a blissful new year and to once again express the Commission’s appreciation to you for responding to our invitation for these important consultative meetings with civil society organisations.
You may recall that our last meeting was held on Thursday 31st October 2024 on the eve of the Ondo State Governorship election. It was our fourth and last regular quarterly meeting for the year. By now, many of you would have noticed that our meetings always come on the eve of elections or major electoral activities. Today’s meeting is no exception.

As you are aware, the Commission released the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Anambra State Governorship election on 17th October last year. As required by law, the Notice of Election was published on 13th November 2024 i.e. 360 days before the date fixed for the election scheduled to hold on 8th November 2025. The next activity is the conduct of party primaries which begins next month. All political parties interested in fielding candidates for the election shall commence their primaries on 20th March 2025 and end three weeks later on 10th April 2025. The Commission’s preparation for the election is on the agenda for this meeting.
Similarly, the Commission has released the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which is the only part of the country where INEC conducts Local Government election. The election will hold on Saturday 21st February 2026. As you are aware, the four-year tenure of the six Chairmen and 62 Councillors will end next year. The last Area Council election was held on 12 February 2022. The Timetable for the election is already uploaded to our website. Further details will be discussed at this meeting.

I would like to urge civil society organisations to be as interested in party primaries as you are actively engaged in the monitoring of secondary elections conducted by INEC. Afterall, only the candidates nominated by the political parties are placed on the ballot paper for citizens to vote for on Election Day. From your monitoring reports as accredited election observers, you have consistently expressed concern over vote-buying at Polling Units during elections. Some of you have made actionable recommendations on how to curtail the menace which have been favourably considered by the Commission. It is time to cast your net wide by focusing on the incidence of delegate-buying by aspirants during primaries. Some delegates openly boasted of how much money they made from aspirants during party primaries. You should intensify your advocacy in support of the practical steps taken by the relevant security and law enforcement agencies to tackle this diabolical practice.