The commission made the disclosure in a statement issued by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, in Abuja after INEC’s meeting held on Thursday.

He cited the security situation in the country, following the EndSARS protests going on in some parts of the country, adding that the commission would meet in the next two weeks to review the situation for a possible date for the bye-elections.

Okoye said that INEC met with the 37 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) to review preparations for the 15 bye-elections in 11 states of the federation.

Okoye said that accordingly, the commission had decided to postpone the bye-elections in the six Senatorial Districts and nine State constituencies.

“This decision is in compliance with Section 26 (2) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

“The section gives the Commission the power to postpone an election if there is reason to believe that a serious breach of the peace is likely to occur if the election is proceeded with on that date, or that it is impossible to conduct the elections as a result of natural disasters or other emergencies.

“The commission will continue to monitor the situation in all the States and constituencies, consult with relevant stakeholders and meet again in two weeks to review the situation and decide on a feasible date for the elections,” he said.

Okoye appealed for calm and understanding of the stakeholders and voters in the States where elections were scheduled.

He said that the safety of the voters, election officials and other stakeholders was paramount to the Commission in conducting elections.

“We are convinced that the country will emerge from the current challenges stronger while our electoral process will continue to improve,” he said.

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HFN President, Samuel Ocheho, told our reporter on Tuesday that the safety of athletes and officials, who would be coming from across the country, was paramount.

“The safety of our players and officials who will be traveling from different parts of the country to Abuja for the league is important.

“We have decided to postpone the league for a week with the hope that everything will come back to normalcy soon,” he said.

The HFN president disclosed that the board of the Handball Federation had supported the decision which was as a result of the violence arising from the protest.

“We have unanimously decided to postpone the league as result of the protest which has turned violent.

“This has necessitated some state governments to declare curfew in their states,” Ocheho said.

He added that he hoped that normalcy returned to the country to enable the league commence from Oct. 30 at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja.

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The race was originally scheduled to take place on March 7 and was expected to allow around 38,000 runners to participate.

But due to restricted entry in Japan, the race has now been pushed back to Oct. 17.

Tokyo is one of the six World Marathon Majors along with Boston, Berlin, Chicago, New York and London.

The first four of these were cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, while the London event was held last weekend featuring only elite runners in a “controlled secure biosphere” around St James’s Park.

The 2020 Tokyo event was also held under a similar format on March 1.

The decision to postpone the Tokyo marathon comes amid concerns over whether the Olympics, which was also pushed back by a year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, can be held safely starting July 23, 2021.

Organisers have proposed cutting back the number of staff at next year’s Games and shortening the opening period for training venues, as part of a plan to hold a streamlined event amid the pandemic.

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La Liga, Spain’s top football division, has requested the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to move or postpone the Oct. 26 match following protests and demonstrations in Catalonia.

There are ongoing protests in Catalonia over the jailing of nine Catalan separatist leaders.

Spain’s El Mundo newspaper reported on Thursday that the federation was poised to postpone the fixture.

Valverde, however, believes the match should go ahead as planned.

“There’s been a lot spoken about this game,” Valverde told a news conference on Thursday.

“It’s true that there was a proposal to change the fixtures round, but we weren’t in favour of that because we play (away) the Wednesday before.

“There’s nine days to go until the game. We need to respect the calendar and also the fans. Under normal circumstances we’d play at home.

“They’re anticipating certain different circumstances and while we know that this week has been out of the ordinary, we are hopeful of playing the game at our ground.

“That’s what we want to do.”

There have been protests and violent clashes with police throughout the region this week.

This was in the wake of Spain’s decision to jail nine Catalan separatist leaders for their part in an illegal referendum on independence.

“It’s a chance for people in society, as well as our fans to demonstrate a number of things. We respect the opposite — in this case our opponents — and that by being civil the match can be played,” Valverde said.

“We want to get rid of all the doom-mongers who say the game won’t go ahead.

“We can show that the match can be played as normal and forget about them.”

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Mrs Otasowie Oshodin, the Registrar of UNIBEN, made this known in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday. In Benin.

Oshodin said that the postponement was necessitated by emergency repairs in the students’ hostels.

She said that the new date for the resumption is now Sunday, Aug. 11, adding that “any inconvenience caused by this postponement is deeply regretted’’.

Oshodin advised students to prepare for the resumption as lectures would start immediately upon resumption.

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