The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

  • Chidoka dumps PDP for UPP

    Chidoka dumps PDP for UPP

    A chieftain of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Osita Chidoka, said he would defect to another political party to enable him to realise his governorship aspiration in Anambra.

    Chidoka, a former Minister of Aviation, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Monday and said that he would dump PDP for United Progressive Party (UPP) on Wednesday.

    The statement by the Director-General of his campaign organisation, Mr Bright Nebedum, said Chidoka would declare for the UPP in his hometown, Obosi.

    It explained that Chidoka’s decision to move to another political party was in furtherance of his political aspiration.

    It said that the declaration, the former minister would unveil his plans and vision “towards redirecting the fortunes of Anambra and restoring its lost political and economic glory’’.

    The statement added that Chidoka stood out with his reputation as a forthright administrator and manager of resources and had never failed in any assignment.

    It noted that before becoming minister in 2014, he showed his mettle as the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

    It said that the Chidoka already commanded overwhelming support from various segments of Anambra citizenry.

    “Chidoka already commands overwhelming support from various segments of Anambra citizenry on which we will leverage to run a robust, all-inclusive and broad-based governorship election campaign,” the statement said.

    The governorship in Anambra has been fixed for Nov. 18 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

     

     

  • INEC explains choice of LGAs for nationwide CVR

    INEC explains choice of LGAs for nationwide CVR

    Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained the choice of Local Government Areas (LGAs) for the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).

    Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman stated that it is the most cost effective among the options open to the commission.

    INEC Chair also hinted that the situation will change in Anambra state to Registration Areas as a the governorship election approaches.

    Yakubu who spoke at the Commission’s mid- quarter review meeting in Kaduna Wednesday said it will cost INEC N25, 156,000.

    The provision for CVR in the Commission’s 2017 budget is N1, 216,346,068 for all VR activities, including off-season elections that have become regular since the 2015 General Election.

    Hence, INEC Boss said the LGA level is the only affordable option that can be accommodated within the current budgetary allocation.

    He said, “Although Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act empowers the Commission to determine registration centres and notify the public, what is the best method for achieving the goal of making the exercise both CONTINUOUS and ACCESSIBLE.

    “The Commission considered 3 options: 1. Polling Unit (PU) level 2. Registration Area (RA) or Ward level 3. .INEC Local Government Area (LGA) offices or   such other places as may be determined by the Commission.

    The PU level is the closest and most ideal. It will take the CVR to the door steps of citizen. There are 119,973 (approx. 120,000) PUs nationwide.  CVR has ever been conducted by the Commission at this levelThe indicative core cost for roll out at the PU level is given is N137, 467,088,080.

    Registration Areas: There are 8,809 RAs (Wards) nationwide and the cost is N21, 030,353,640.
    There are 774 LGAs nationwide and the cost implication according to him is 25,156,000.
    The Commission, he said decided to commence the exercise at LGA level based on the consideration that it is a CVR and not:—one-week.

    Other considerations, Yakubu said was that the election-eve registration exercise and registration similar to the one conducted in 2011.

    The Commission adopted a quarterly approach to the exercise in order to allow for the publication of names of new registrants (minimum of 5 and maximum of 14 days) for claims and objections as required by law (Sec. 19[1] of the Electoral Act).

    “This sequence shall continue until 60 days to the 2019 General Election when it will be suspended as required by law (Sec. 9[5] of the Electoral Act). It will resume after the General Election.”

    In the case of Anambra state Yakubu said “The CVR will be devolved to RA level as was done in off season general elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo and FCT Area Councils Elections. The date will very soon be announced by the Commission.”

  • Police arrest four suspects with 4,555 National Identity cards

    Police arrest four suspects with 4,555 National Identity cards

    The police in Cross River on Monday arrested four suspected thieves for unlawful possession of 4,555 National Identity cards and 21 others who committed various offences, the Commissioner of Police,  Mr Hafiz Inuwa, said.

    Inuwa, who made the development known when he addressed  newsmen in Calabar on Tuesday, said the suspects were arrested by personnel of the Police Command in Cross on May 19.

    He said the suspected identity card thieves were arrested at a location on Eyo-Edem Street in Calabar following a tip-off.

    The commissioner explained that after a thorough search on the suspects, 4,555 National Identity cards bearing different names were found on them.

    “Upon interrogation, the four suspects confessed that one Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff gave the cards to them.

    “All the four suspects confessed to the crime and investigation is on-going in order to arrest the alleged INEC staff,” he said.

    The commissioner said that the command also arrested three suspected armed robbers on May 2, shortly after they allegedly robbed Solomon Alfred of his N380,000 and three mobile phones.

    “On May 2, our men arrested three suspected armed robbers who had robbed Solomon Alfred of his N380,000 and his three mobile phones.

    “Also on May 13, our men arrested a student of the University of Calabar for being in possession of fake currencies.

    “During interrogation, the suspect claimed that a friend of his that resides at Uyo gave him the fake currencies.

    “Investigation is on-going to unravel the truth of the matter and arrest his accomplices to ascertain the source/distributor of these fake currencies,” he said.

    The police also arrested three suspected manufacturers of firearms on May 19, the commissioner said.

    He also said  the police recovered five locally made pistols; six locally made single barrel guns, one locally made single barrel long gun, among others.

    “During the period under review, the state police command has arrested 25 suspects for various offences.

    “We recovered five AK 47 riffles, seven magazines and 200 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition, one battle axe, eight live cartridges, among others,” he said.

  • INEC registers 14,000 new voters in Niger

    INEC registers 14,000 new voters in Niger

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Niger said it has registered 14,000 eligible voters in the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration in the state.

    The Secretary of the commission, Alhaji Aliyu Bungudu, told the News Agency of Migeria (NAN) in Minna on Tuesday that those registered were  issued with temporary voters card.

    He appealed to those who had early registered and had not collect their PVCs to come forward for collection at  the commission offices across the 25 local government areas  in the state.

    Bungudu  also solicited the support of stakeholders, leaders of political parties, and development associations, in mobilising residents who have not registered to do so  and those who did to come forward for their permanent voter cards.

    He said that the CVR was geared toward giving every eligible voter the opportunity to participate in electoral process.

  • INEC to decide on political associations seeking registration Wednesday

    INEC to decide on political associations seeking registration Wednesday

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would on Wednesday disclose its decision on political associations seeking to be registered as political parties.

    Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen at ongoing workshop to review INEC’s Communication Policy, on Monday in Abuja.

    Yakubu said the decision would be made public after the commission meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) scheduled for Wednesday in Kaduna.

    “Let me assure Nigerians that under the Electoral Act, the commission is required to register new political parties and the guidelines are very clear for registration.

    “As at last week we received 95 applications for registration as new political parties.

    “At the end of this workshop there is going to be a retreat on Wednesday to review the ongoing voter registration, followed by a meeting of the commission here in Kaduna.

    “There will be a statement on parties after the meeting of the commission,” Yakubu said.

    He added that the commission would on Wednesday also give an update on the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), after the commission’s meeting with the field officers to review the exercise

    “We will do a mid-quarter review after six weeks and the mid-quarter review will come up here in Kaduna and we will issue our statement here after.”

    Yakubu also disclosed that the commission would extend the CVR in Anambra to ward levels ahead of the state governorship election.

    He added that people who registered in the state before the first quarter 2017 would obtain their Permanent​ Voter Cards (PVCs) before the state governorship election.

    “We will soon announce the date for the commencement of the exercise.

    “So those who have registered under the current CVR and those who will register when we devolve to ward level will all have their PVCs ahead of the election.

    “For those who have registered and are going to vote in Anambra, I want to assure them that they will have their cards. It is for those who have done it in the first quarter of this year.”

    On the pending senatorial district election in Anambra, the chairman said that specific date was yet to be fixed for the election as the case was still in court.

    “You know the matter is before the Court of Appeal.

    “A date was fixed, May 30, but at the court, one of the parties prayed for adjournment to June 12 or June 13.”

  • A’Ibom: Group urges Senate to swear in elected candidate

    A’Ibom: Group urges Senate to swear in elected candidate

    A civil society organization, Human Rights and Civil Society Alliance, has urged the Senate to obey court judgment and swear in Mr Bassey Etim as senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East.

    The Chairman of the group, Mr Gabriel Ojo, made the call at a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.

    Ojo said that allowing Mr Bassey Akpan to remain in the Senate, representing Akwa Ibom North-East in spite of existing court verdict removing him, called for concern.

    According to him, the senate is setting a bad precedence with its action on the issue.

    He, however, warned that the group would not watch and allow such flagrant disobedience of the law to continue.

    ”The Senate leadership has refused to obey the judgment of the court that it should inaugurate Bassey Etim.

    “The leadership is doing this under the guise that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is waiting for legal advice from lawyers on what to do with the positive order of the court.

    “We are appalled by the fact that the senate leadership is not only disobeying the court order but encouraging double standard in the Red Chamber.

    “In order to discourage this show of brazen insult on the nation’s highest office of people’s representation, we call on the senate leadership to obey the court order and swear in Senator-elect, Bassey Etim,’’ he said.

    On a recent communiqué issued by Coalition of Concerned Lawyers (CCL) criticising the senate for previously obeying court orders over swearing-in of senators from Kogi-East Senatorial District, Ojo said it was misleading.

    He said that CCL’s support of Bassey Akpan was aimed at creating confusion in the minds of Nigerians by alluding to the fact that the senate leadership acted then in error.

    He stated that the action of the senate in the Kogi case was a clear positive precedence, but wondered why it refused to honour similar court order in the case of Etim.

    On the excuse that Bassey Akpan had appealed the Federal High Court order, Ojo said “you do not need to be a lawyer to know that an appeal does not constitute a stay of execution.

    “ The 90-day ultimatum given by the court for Akpan to refund the salary and allowances he had collected as senator before the judgment has passed and he has not complied.

    “Instead, he has gone to several courts looking for order to stop execution which he has been denied.’’

    It will be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Uyo on Feb. 27, 2017, removed Sen. Bassey Akpan as senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East and replaced him with Sen. Bassey Etim.

    The high court, in the judgment on a pre-election dispute between Akpan and Etim, both of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), asked Akpan to also refund within 90 days, all salaries and allowances collected.

    Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has retrieved Akpan’s Certificate of Return and issued a fresh one to Etim based on the court order.

    But, the Senate has failed to swear in Etim, saying it was seeking legal advice on whether or not to swear him in.

    The Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, had promised that the upper chamber would obey the rule of law.

  • INEC, others kick against Political Debate Commission bill

    INEC, others kick against Political Debate Commission bill

    Attempts by the Senate to establish a Nigerian Political Party Debate Commission is being resisted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other stakeholders.

    At a public hearing on the bill on Wednesday, the stakeholders described the envisaged commission as superfluous and diversionary.

    The Senate had in October last year, passed for second reading the bill entitled, “Nigerian Political Debates Commission Bill, 2015, sponsored by Senator Abdulfatai Buhari.

    Senator Buhari had argued that if passed, “the bill would make it mandatory for those seeking election as president, governors, lawmakers and other elective positions, including their running mates, would have to go through a debate, which would be organised by a the commission to be funded by government and headship of which to be appointed by a sitting President”

    However, stakeholders in the electoral process at the public hearing session vehemently opposed the idea of setting up the commission, which they described unnecessary burden on the nation’s resources.

    INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu who was the first to kick against the bill, said although the election debate platform was a welcome development for the deepening of democratic practice, making such a platform to be a full fledge commission to be funded by government will be counterproductive.

    Yabuku said, “The idea of a solid platform for election debate in Nigeria as it is in the United States of America and some other countries of the world is a welcome development for our democracy and electoral processes.

    “But making such platform to be like a statutory commission would not help in achieving the motive behind the lofty idea.

    “To us in INEC, such a platform should be allowed to remain in form of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that would be funded by corporate bodies in the land and managed by independent and non-partisan Nigerians with outstanding character and repute”.

    Similarly, the President of the Nigeria Political Science Association, Professor Sam Egwu, also backed the position of the INEC chairman.

    According to him, that the platform for such debate should be independent and not a commission that would be funded by government.

    Egwu added that such a move would not only be counter-productive to the desired goal, but would also rubbish the electoral process.

    The President of the Senate, D. Bukola Saraki in his opening address at the session, stated that law making is an all-encompassing process where input of stakeholders and the public is imperative.

    According to him, the bill, if passed into law, will enable the Nigerian electorate vote for the best candidates at the various elections.

  • Double registration: Kogi APC demands Gov Bello’s resignation

    Double registration: Kogi APC demands Gov Bello’s resignation

    The leadership of the Kogi State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has demanded the immediate resignation of the Governor, Yahaya Bello for double voter registration.

    The chapter called on the state’s House of Assembly to proceed with impeachment process against the governor if he failed to resign.

    At a press conference in Abuja on Friday, the party declared that the governor’s action has caused an embarrassment to the entire state and has impugned on the party’s image.

    The chairman of the Kogi APC, Alhaji Hadi Ametuo who briefed spoke on behalf of the party’s executive in the state, said the party would not fold its arms and watch the governor destroy its image and integrity.

    Ametuo described double registration as serious electoral crime that must not be allowed to go unchallenged.

    “This is the kind of crime that the state House of Assembly which enjoys the mandate of the people cannot overlook”

    Other party chieftains at the briefing included Mohammed Ohiare, Ocheja Dangana, Abdulrahman Abubakar and Senator Dino Melaye.

    Melaye, who also spoke at the conference, added that what the governor did underscored the fact that he was not a registered voter in Kogi state in the first place.

    He wondered why Governor Bello accepted the gubernatorial candidacy offer of the APC in the first place.

    The controversial senator representing Kogi West district vowed to mobilise the state assembly for impeachment process against the governor should he fail to resign voluntarily.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had through a statement on Tuesday, accused Governor Bello of registering twice as a voter, an action the commission described as an infraction on the nation’s electoral laws.

    Giving details of the governor’s illegal action, the INEC had stated, “It has come to the attention of INEC that Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state registered as a voter for the second time on Tuesday May 23, 2017 in Government House, Lokoja, the state capital.

    “First registration was on January 30, 2011 in Wuse Zone 4, Abuja. And the Governor’s double registration and doing so outside INEC’s designated centres are both illegal.

    “For the on-going continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise, INEC has designated a centre in each of the 774 local government areas across the federation, including the FCT’s six area council”.

    The electoral commission had stated that although Section 308(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, restrained it from prosecuting the governor, disciplinary action would be taken against its officials that aided the governor’s double registration.

  • Decentralisation of voting unconstitutional – INEC

    Decentralisation of voting unconstitutional – INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday said the call by Nigerians for decentralisation of voting was unconstitutional.

    Mrs. Ndidi Okafor, Deputy Director, Public Relations, INEC, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that it was not possible to register in one place and vote in another.

    Okafor said that the law establishing the commission did not give it power to allow decentralisation of voting, adding that it would be illegal to embark on such idea.

    “It is a legal matter; it has nothing to do with the internal administration of the commission. The Electoral Act says vote where you register.

    “So, you must endeavour to ensure that where you register is where you have to vote because on Election Day, movement is restricted and that is why the law says ‘go and vote where you registered’.

    “As long as that law remains and has not been amended, there is nothing the commission can do to allow decentralisation of voting.

    “All INEC needs to do is to appeal that Nigerians be law-abiding and register close to where they live for easy access to polling centres during elections.

    “Election is a national project guided by the laws of the land, the Constitution and the electoral Act; so I appeal that we should respect and obey the law,’’ she said.

    Okafor said that all Nigerians could do for now was to start lobbying for a change of the law to meet their request.

    She, however, encouraged those that had moved from where the registered to go to the continuous voter registration centre in their area councils to transfer their votes to their present location.

    She said INEC had provided an electoral product called “transfer of documentation’’ for Nigerians to transfer their votes, inter-state or intra-state as they wished.

    Okafor said that in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CRV), INEC made provision for three main electoral products.

    She said that the products were fresh registration, which was opened only to those who just turned 18, those not registered before, or persons with temporary voter card, but names not in the voter register.

    According to her, persons in these three categories can now access fresh registration and INEC officers are on ground to help them.

    Okafor said that the voter registration was progressing smoothly, adding that INEC would soon seek ways to decentralise the process so as to capture every area.

     

  • Why Senate amended Electoral Act, says Saraki

    Why Senate amended Electoral Act, says Saraki

     

     

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Thursday expressed confidence that the recent amendments to the Electoral Act will strengthen the country’s electoral process and make it conform with the international best practices.

    Saraki noted that when assented to, the amendments will eliminate rigging, violence and other forms of malpractices associated with the electoral process in the country.

    The Senate President in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Mohammed Isa, spoke while receiving a delegation of Safran IS, an international biometric and identity management company that visited him in Abuja.

    Saraki said, “I believe the amendments will strengthen our electoral processes, particularly at the transmission of results to the various stages of collation.

    “We made a lot of progress with the introduction of the Card Reader during the 2015 general elections and it is our commitment and determination to improve on that during subsequent elections.

    “One of the things that I think is the big issue during election is in the area of transmission of results, and it has been something that we need to improve on and we need to get that done before 2019.

    “I am confident that if we can get the electronic transmission right, we will begin to have an election process that can compete with what obtains in any other part of the world.

    “We want a situation that as soon as results are announced at polling units, we should be able to receive them across board. I think when we are able to do that, the challenge associated with physical result transmission would be a thing of the past.”

    He expressed the readiness of the Senate to partner with any organization that could provide the right solutions, and requested Safran to collaborate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and support their initiative.

    The leader of the delegation, Ms Jessica Van Meeteren explained that based on their experiences and successes in similar jobs in other countries, Safran IS possesses the required technology and technical know-how to provide Nigeria with the solutions.

    Meeteren said the company had undertaken similar jobs in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, India, Chile among others.