Adventist Church To INEC, FG: ‘Conduct Elections On A Working Day Except Friday’

The elders of Seventh Day Adventist Church in Nigeria yesterday pleaded with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Federal Government to stop fixing elections on Saturdays.

The church is renowned worldwide for observing Saturday as Sabbath day.

The Church stakeholders claimed that letters have been dispatched to the appropriate government institutions on the need to fix elections for any of the working days instead of Saturday.
Speaking on behalf of the elders at a press conference in Akure the Ondo State capital, the newly re-elected President of the Western Union of Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Nigeria, Pastor Oyeleke Owolabi noted that many countries in the world do not conduct elections on Saturday, stressing that this was in recognition of 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 asked.