Moses Ofodeme
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Anambra State Governorship election to be held on 8th November 2025.
Under the schedule Party primaries will begin next month while 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.
At the appropriate time, the Commission will release the details for interested media organisations to apply for accreditation through the online portal which all of you are now familiar with.
The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, gave the update at the first quarterly meeting with the Media in Abuja.
Yakubu, also said the Commission has released the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) holding on 21st February 2026.
However, most of the major activities for the election will be held this year, including party primaries and the nomination of candidates for the 68 constituencies made up of six Area Council Chairmen and 62 Councillors scheduled to hold from 9th – 30th June 2025. Our preparations for the election is on the agenda for this meeting. Hardcopies of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities as well as the list of constituencies are included in your folders while the softcopies have been uploaded to our website.
In addition to the end-of-tenure elections, there is an increasing number of bye-elections to be conducted.
He said, “In the last three weeks alone, vacancies have occurred in one Federal Constituency and two State Constituencies caused by the death of serving members. In another State Constituency, the State Assembly declared the seat vacant as a result of absenteeism, following the prolonged absence of the member from sittings of the House in violation of Section 109(1)[f] of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”
He reassured the media of INEC’s commitment to continuously improve on the electoral process, adding “Every election or electoral activity presents its own unique challenge and an opportunity to learn lessons for improvement. The recent Ondo State Governorship election has been widely acknowledged to be an improvement especially in the management of logistics and performance of election technology. We will strive harder to ensure the continuous improvement of our elections. However, being a multi-stakeholder responsibility, we appeal for the continuous support of all and sundry, especially in critical areas of reform.”
He went further saying, “One of these areas of reform is the prosecution of electoral offenders. Judicial and legislative action in the last few days underscore our effort to deal with offences involving officials of the Commission assigned to carry out designated responsibilities.
“However, it also highlights the challenges we face in dealing with electoral offences. The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point. The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court. Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending. “
He noted that a major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals.
Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed. No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.
He therefore urged the media to join in this patriotic advocacy for the good of our electoral democracy.