THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday said that it had begun to put strategies in place to help it curb election challenges.

The National Commissioner of the commission, Mr Lekky-Mustafa Muhammad, said this  in Asaba during the opening ceremony of a two- day workshop on building staff capacity.

He said that after the workshop, the staff would have been better equipped to execute their electoral functions appropriately.

He also said that INEC had the mandate to monitor political parties’ activities, including their finances.

He said that the workshop with the theme “Campaign finance, training and reporting” was for INEC staff members across the six South-South states.

He said that the importance of adequate monitoring of campaign finances was necessary in order to let the electorate know that there was the need to protect the integrity of our election.

He said that money could easily influence our election sometimes in a negative way, but not all money was bad.

He said that the money could be misused if it was coming from one person or an entity.

He said that the workshop was to discourage unhealthy money or too much money coming from one source.

Also, the INEC Administrative Secretary in Delta, Mrs Rose Orianran-Anthony, said that INEC core values such as Transparency and Neutrality agreed with the principles of political finance oversight.

Orianran-Anthony said that when politicians flout INEC rules, it would affect the credibility of the entire process and democracy.

She said that problem would arise in politics when self-seeking and wealthy politicians or individuals were allowed to fund parties with unlimited financial resources unchecked.

She said that such negative result would begin to wield unhealthy control over the political parties. (NAN)

– Apr. 16, 2018 @ 18:19 GMT

AE