The Ijaw National Congress, an apex socio-cultural organisation of the Ijaw nation worldwide, says its rescheduled national elections will be held on April 13.

This is contained in a communiqué issued after an expanded National Executive Council meeting of the organisation held on Thursday in Yenagoa.

The meeting was called to address urgent concerns, particularly the electoral committee’s preparedness for the rescheduled national elections.

The communiqué said that the meeting was attended by the president and leader of INC, Benjamin Okaba, as well as other NEC members, members of the board of trustees and members of the Conference of Ijaw Traditional Rulers and Elders.

Others were members of the National Representative Committee, zonal executive committee members, chapter executive committee members and past presidents of the congress.

The communiqué stated that, after a thorough review of the report presented by ELECO, members expressed satisfaction with the extent to which the committee addressed the various concerns raised at a stakeholders’ meeting called by the Bayelsa governor on March 13.

It said that members subsequently endorsed the report and agreed that, given the committee’s level of preparedness, the rescheduled national election should be held on April 13.

“Members were also satisfied with the level of readiness of ELECO in terms of preparation of sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the election. Members at the meeting emphasised the independence of ELECO to carry out its assignment without interference from other organs of Congress except to receive logistics support from the NEC,” the communiqué stated.

It further stated that CITRE members, in line with Article 14 (D) of the INC 2019 Constitution, are an advisory body like the BOT, whose function on election matters is limited to clearing nominees from the NEC and dealing with any crisis arising from the elections.

The communiqué restated that NEC was willing to receive advice from CITRE, BOT, and every other organ of the congress, and that these organs were at liberty to filter the advice and execute it in the best interests of the organisation.

(NAN)