The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Rivers State has threatened to sanction any political party whose electioneering campaigns are at variance with the rules and regulations of election guidelines in the country.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State, Mr Obo Effanga gave the warning at the weekend in Port Harcourt.
According to him, INEC will not allow what happened in the previous elections in the state to happen again in the 2019 general election.
“I want to use this opportunity again to warn politicians and political parties to play politics by the rules of the election, which is the respective laws and the regulation for the elections.
“If the parties play their parts wells, we are unlikely to get problems when it comes to the conduct of the elections.
“We keep saying that violence is not what we need in the forthcoming election, if it happened in the past, we will not allow it to happen again”, he warned.
Effanga also appealed to Journalists to be accurate in their reportage of the 2019 election in the state.
He said most election violence in the state was due to some wrong information and reports carried by some journalists and advised newsmen to shun partisan politics in their reportage to ensure a fair and free election in the state.
“When it comes to election and the reportage, some journalists misrepresent issues to ignite violence in the election.
“Some politicians ignorantly take wrong reports to create violence in the election.
“Journalists should be mindful of their report and they should be able, in their analysis and reportage, to report exactly what happened whether the election is credible or not. Journalists should also try to balance their stories to give the readers and the public accurate judgements on issues seeming to be controversial”, Effanga appealed.
The INEC Commissioner reiterated the commitment of the electoral body to conduct fair and free elections in the state.
