A statement by INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the commission’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye, on Monday in Abuja said that INEC opted to reopen the campaigns after consultations with the political parties.
Okoye said that the campaigns would end “by midnight of Thursday, 21st February 2019”.
“In the meantime, after consultations with the political parties, the commission has approved campaigns by parties and candidates can resume forthwith to end by midnight of Thursday, February 21, 2019,” Okoye said.
The announcement comes barely 48 hours after the INEC Chairman told political stakeholders in Abuja that campaigns would remain closed despite the postponement of the general elections.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had said during his meeting with political parties and other stakeholders after the elections were postponed by the commission.
However, two leading political parties in the country, the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that they would go ahead with the campaigns in line with law, despite the unpopular stand of INEC.