Adventist Church to INEC: ‘don’t fix election on Saturday’

ELDERS of Seventh Day Adventist Church in
Nigeria yesterday urged the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the
Federal Government to desist from fixing
elections on Saturdays.
Saturday is the worship day for members of
the Christian denomination worldwide.
The Church stakeholders claimed that letters
have been sent to the appropriate government
institutions on the need to fix elections for any
of the working days instead of Saturday.
They also noted that apart from Saturday, both
Sunday and Friday should also be exempted as
election days. This, they noted, is to allow both
Christians and Muslims to enable them observe
their religious obligations.
The newly re-elected President of the Western
Union of Seventh-Day Adventist Church in
Nigeria, Pastor Oyeleke Owolabi, who spoke
with reporters on behalf of the elders at a
press conference in Akure, the Ondo State
capital, noted that many countries in the world
do not conduct elections on Saturday, stressing
that this was to allow for religious liberty.
He said, “We are not being selfish; what we are
clamouring for is that elections should not be
conducted on Fridays, Saturday and Sundays,
because these days are spent by Christians and
Muslims as their worship days.
“Saturday should be set aside for us to
worship. Why can’t the government conduct
elections on a working day except Fridays,”he
asks.