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Tag: Inec

  • Drama as supporters of 18 parties clash in Rivers

    There was drama, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, as  supporters of 18 parties  scuffled during a protest against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The protesters are supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and 16 others.

    They barricaded the INEC office at Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway, accusing the commission of bias in the posting of ad hoc workers.

    A coalition of 17 parties, Concerned Political Parties, led by  Mr Emeka Amadi,  said they   came to the INEC office to complain but were surprised PDP supporters invaded the scene.

    In a statement yesterday in Port Harcourt, the group accused INEC of bias, alleging that the Supervisory Officers (SPOs) in the local government areas were PDP and APC allies.

    The group said it would continue to protest until INEC reviews the posting.

    The group said: “We are suspecting that those posted to local government areas are close allies of some politicians. We, the supporters of political parties in the state, will not support any idea that will truncate the democratic progress.

    “All we want is free, fair and credible elections, though as supporters of political   parties, we still have confidence in INEC but we want INEC to review and re-examine its ad hoc workers.”

    Mr. Bright Amehule, who led the PDP group,  alleged that the test-run of the card reader machine was influenced by some parties.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dame Gecila Khan, dismissed the allegations.

    She said: “If the two parties are protesting against us, it then means INEC is purely neutral.”

  • Eligible voters with missing fingers to enjoy waiver

    Over a dozen persons with missing fingers in Ogun State yesterday told the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to disenfranchise them in the March 28 and April 11 general elections.

    They said they need  to know how INEC would tackle the challenges brought about by their disability.

    Mrs. Maria Adele said: “I want to vote but the problem is with the fingers. There are others with the same problem, so you (INEC) should help us because we can not hold papers firmly or thumb print.”

    The Head of Department of Voters Education and Publicity, Leonard Nkedife, assured them that the commission would introduce some modicum of waivers to enable them exercise their right to vote.

    Nkedife, who gave the assurance in Abeokuta, the state capital, at a sensitisation programme organised by INEC for People Living With Disability (PLWD), said eligible voters with missing fingers and toes would not be subjected to the rigour of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) verification via card readers.

    About 80 PLWD, including those with missing fingers, participated in the programme, where they were also encouraged to go collect their PVCs at the commission’s local government  offices.

    Nkedife added that aside the PLWDs, expectant and nursing mothers and the elderly would be given preferential treatment during accreditation on election day.

  • Low turn-out mars INEC verification in Bauchi

    Low turn-out mars INEC verification in Bauchi

    There was a low turn-out of registered voters at the various  polling stations in Bauchi State during the test-running of Smart Card Readers that would be used during the general elections by the Independent national electoral commission (INEC).

    At the Jama’re B  Registration Area, Jamare’re Local  Government Area, which comprises of 14 polling units, the exercise took place between 8am and 1pm.,

    Our correspondent visited polling units in Horare , Yola, Jeyogel, Digiza Kofar Jauro, Azizi Primay School and Jabbori. People were reluctant to come out for the exercise.

    In Jeyogel,   the total number of registered voters was 405,  but only 109 turned out for the accreditation, out of which 83 voters finger prints were successfully captured while 26 failed the verification exercise.

    As at 11.30am, the average  battery strength of the card reader devices  at the various polling units was 78 percent, which meant that the device could function for more than eight hours or more.

    Yola Polling unit had 650 registered voters. But, only 104 turned out for the exercise. The number of captured finger prints at the polling unit was 81 while 23 failed the verification.,

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Hamman Tukur Sa’ad,   said that the card-reader devices were working as expected, adding that the turn-out was low because the people were aware that the exercise was not the main election.

    He said there were 14 polling units in the registration area and the commission deployed  30 card-readers. He said there was no reason to use the spare devices in case of failure.,

    The commissioner explained that the aim of the exercise was to test the efficiency of the card-readers on the PVCs. He expressed optimism that the general elections will be successful.

    Sa’ad said the only challenge was the low turn out, which, he maintained was due the feeling that it was a mock exercise.

  • 55.5m PVCs collected so far – INEC

    55.5m PVCs collected so far – INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that 55.490 million Permanent Voter Cards ( PVCs) have been collected as at March 9th.

    The commission register has 68.833,476 million on its list for the forthcoming general elections rescheduled for March 28th and April 11th for National and states elections.

    According to INEC latest update, the collection rate has reached 80.61 percent. The commission which announced an extension of the collection date still have 13.343 million PVCs for collection.

    It said it might not be possible for the commission to have hundred percent collection rate for obvious reasons.

    Most states have reached between 60 % and above collection rate apart from Ogun state which recorded 47 per cent Gombe and Zamfara recorded 95per cent.

  • Abuja residents settle for Smart Card Readers

    Abuja residents settle for Smart Card Readers

    Residents of the Federal Capital City (FCT), Abuja, have expressed support for the use of the Smart Card Readers (SCRs) for the conduct of the forthcoming general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    A cross-section of the residents told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday on the desirability or otherwise of the machines, that any attempt to stop the use of the SCRs will jeopardise the credibility of the rescheduled polls.

    According to them, the March 28 presidential/National Assembly and April 11 governorship/state assembly elections can only be free, fair and credible, if INEC was allowed to use the SCRs to checkmate irregularities.

    Mr Obiora Chukwuemeka, a civil servant at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, described calls by some politicians to stop the use of the machines as selfish.

    Chukwuemeka said the non usage of the machines for the general elections could lead to rigging through the Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs).

    He added that the SCRs, acquired with billions of naira, were aimed to checkmate rigging in the elections and bring development to the country’s electoral process.

    His words: The use of the machines will not allow rigging of elections, use of TVCs, multiple voting, among others; we must embrace the use of card reader machines introduced by INEC.

    “We must commend INEC for introducing the machine, which is leaving analogue method of voting to digital era.’’

    He said that despite the criticism of the SCRs in Nigeria, the facility is being used by some African countries such as Ghana, among others.

    Another resident, Mr Sulisu Abdullah, also a civil servant, said the introduction of the machine was a welcome development, adding that it will stamp out poll’s irregularity and fraud.

    He said: “It can check electorate to ensure that their voter cards presented at the polling units are for the rightful owners.

    “The performance of the machines deployed to test-run at the weekend in the six geographical areas was huge success, free, fair and was credible enough; we must embrace it.’’

    Also speaking, Mrs Philomena Eneche, a business woman, said the SCRs could detect fake PVCs, eradicate ballot-box snatching, multiple voting, illegal thumb printing of ballot papers and snatching of result sheets.

    She, however, urged the electoral umpire to improve on the identified areas of lapses.

    Her words: “INEC should try and improve on few lapses on the machines and also educate electorate not to use grease on their fingers because it may prevent them from thumb printing.’’

    She noted that cloned PVCs were detected through the device during the biometric verification when INEC conducted mock polls in 12 states across the state.

    That shows that the machine is effective and reliable,” Mrs. Eneche concluded”

    Some international observers, Mrs. Rumi Ana Decheva and Uros Urstga, who monitored the mock elections, commended INEC for the initiative, saying that it will add more credibility to Nigeria’s electoral process.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti, Sam Olumekun, who monitored the election, said the mock election had convinced Nigerians about the usefulness and relevance of the machines to the polls.

    But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the result of the test-run of the SCRs had proved that the challenges of the machine was enormous and should not be used for the election.

    The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said some hitches were reported at the various centre, insisting that Nigeria was not mature for the use of the SCRs now.

    He identified such lapses as “non-verification of voters’ fingerprints even after authenticating their PVCs.”

    Metuh listed the other lapses included slow accreditation process due to poor internet server operations in some locations and apparent inadequate knowledge of the SCR’s by both INEC officials and voters.

  • Court grants mandamus to activist to compel INEC not to shift polls

    Justice Abdul Kafarati of the Federal High Court Abuja has granted leave to a human rights activist, Mr. Richard Akinnola, to seek for an order of Mandamus compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Service Chiefs and the National Security Adviser from further postponing the March 28 and April 11 elections.

    The permission was granted following an ex parte motion filed by the activist and argued by the Festus Keyamo Chambers.

    In his substantive suit, the activist is seeking for an Order of Mandamus compelling INEC to conduct the scheduled March 28 elections, irrespective of “the advice, position or opposition of the 3rd to 6th respondents (Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval staff and the National Security Adviser.

    He is also seeking for an order compelling the Inspector General of police “to provide men and materials for the protection and security of the men and materials of the 1st respondent (INEC), during the conduct of the election”.

    Akinnola is also seeking for on order of injunction restraining the service chiefs from further interfering with INE’s conduct of the 2015 elections.

    The suit has been adjourned to March 23.

  • Hand of Esau…

    Hand of Esau…

    Two famous lines immediately came to mind on hearing ruling of the Federal High Court Abuja ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register Young Democratic Party (YDP). The first is that of George Santayana that – ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. The other well known verse is attributed to the American statesman Henry Kissinger: “It is not often that nations learn from the past, even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.

    Shortly after the ruling filtered in, most Nigerians, like yours truly, would imagine the YDP to be a reincarnation of the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) – the genie sprung on the political space by the maverick Arthur Nzeribe in 1993 to ambush the nation’s democracy. Though hardly an improved version of the old as one might expect after more than two decades of mutation, YDP seems the perfect PDP Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with all the essential features of the old complete with subterfuge and political toxicity.

    It was perhaps just as it was designed to be: on the one hand, the ruling by Justice Ahmed Mohammed has sent the nation’s adrenalin soaring; on the other, such has been the jubilation in the camps of the YDP and the PDP that one imagined that they already have a big trophy in their hands. I have struggled to make sense of what is supposed to be its substance over which political vagrants have been dancing naked. My puzzle, to be sure, is one of understanding the basis of their morbid dance. Is it a case of the upstarts seeing what the rest of us cannot see? Or simply one of those situations in which media reportage, aside muddling up issues, may have done grave injury to the renditions of the learned judge?

    Either way, it must be troubling enough that some political delinquents would seek to abort what seems to be a well laid out democratic pathway.

    What do we know of the YDP? I watched their officials – five or six of them – on TV during their press conference the other day. They seemed youthful alright (which by the way is sheer tragedy given what they represent); with the exception of the chairman who looked a bit serious, their media outing in all conveyed a picture of school children coerced to make an appearance!

    As to their middle appellation – Democratic – I confess to having a bit of difficulty reconciling what is supposed to be a legitimate quest to get a party formally registered with the stated resolve to achieve same through the back door and at the pain of bringing the roof of the house down on everyone!

    On their claim to be a party – I leave the judgement of whether or not the motley assembly of the odd fellows qualify to be labelled a “party” to Nigerians given the infinitely elastic interpretation of their rights to form just about any association. After all, I have countless times wondered about the farce under which some deluded fellows would hold the system down only because they have just enough money to rent shops in 36 state capitals all in the name of party formation.

    But I digress. I do not pretend that I have read the judgment of the Federal High Court Abuja. It seems doubtful that anyone has come across let alone read the full text. Like many Nigerians, I am limited to the snippets as reported in the media which unfortunately comes to pretty little. Which is of course unfortunate given what is supposed to be its import on the orderly process of the 2015 election. Merely by what the inferences and interpretations suggest, a judicial mine is supposed to have been laid in the way of the process.

    Nothing of course can be fundamentally wrong with the specific order on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately register YDP as a political party. The judge’s finding that the party is deemed to have been registered when INEC failed to inform it of its decision not to register it as a political party within 30 days of receiving its application, is said to find strength in Section 78 (4) of the Electoral Act, 2010ý. On that, I have no quarrel.

    The part I consider troubling is the varied interpretations of the ruling particularly as touching on the elections barely three weeks away. Here, the issue is whether the court actually ordered INEC to put the name of the YDP candidates on the ballot for the March 28 and April 11 elections? Did it? Could it – or should it have – given the implications?

    And which candidates are we talking about here – those that emerged with or without INEC-supervised primaries? Could the litigants have been automatically availed of that right without inviting grievous assault to public policy? Assuming one concedes that the party is truly deemed to have been registered by May according to the law, where should the pendulum of public policy ordinarily tilt given that the printing and logistics for the elections ought to have been concluded before now?  Still wondering why Nigerians are apprehensive of the imminence of a judelex coup? Judelex  – yes – judiciary-electoral-executive coup!  Look at it this way: The ruling PDP has by words and deeds, shown that it would rather not have the elections. The dithering PDP administration not only gifted itself six weeks to sort out a security mess that it had nearly the whole of eternity to clean up but chose not to, it has in the last three weeks found a ready song in the deployment in card readers which it claimed would disenfranchise voters. It is hard to imagine a worse case of electoral avoidance –I once described it as electoral allergy – by a party in government in a democratic setting!

    Now, YDP, its minion wants the names of its so-called candidates on the ballot; knowing how impractical the demand is. It offers INEC a gratuitous option of postponing the elections which it knows is unlikely to happen! In the meantime, it purports to procure a judgment, which for all practical purposes, makes it a supremo with the power of discretion over electoral validity? Yes, that is where some have taken us!

    So, where is the difference between the party with acute electoral allergy and another which insists on not caring a hoot if the entire structure is brought down so it can have its way? Aren’t we again at a point where a band of certified delinquents, aided by the piper, would brazenly suborn the judiciary to their devious schemes? How short some people’s memory can be! See you after the polls.

     

    • This column goes on a five-week vacation. God willing, we meet again at the other side of the polls.

  • Lagos APC lauds INEC on biometric verification

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State has lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the successful test-running of the card readers.

    The party said the successful test-run has vindicated INEC’s preparedness for free and credible elections.

    In a statement in Lagos by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, the APC said: “We are elated that the card reader has proved successful.

    “We note that besides the languid attempts by traditional election riggers to tarnish this important gadget, the card reader is capable of instilling discipline and integrity in the coming election.

    “We applaud INEC on this wonderful device and urge it to ensure that the shortfalls recorded during the trial are addressed and the card readers further fortified to ensure that votes decide who wins the elections.”

  • INEC, others sued over ‘imposition’

    INEC, others sued over ‘imposition’

    All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial aspirant  for Delta South Mr Temisan Omatseye has re-filed a suit at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory against the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and others over the alleged imposition of a candidate.

    He is challenging the alleged imposition of Prince Yemi Emiko as the APC’s candidate for the senatorial zone.

    The plaintiff through his lawyers had filed a discontinuance notice to the initial suit at the Federal High Court.

    It followed a Court of Appeal ruling that the Federal High Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain a matter in which the major reliefs sought are not against the Federal Government or any of its agencies.

    The plaintiff, through his lead counsel, A.C. Ozioko, said he contested and won the APC primary election held last December 8.

    But rather than his name, that of the third defendant who he said came second in the primary was sent to INEC purporting him to be the winner contrary to APC’s guidelines and constitution.

    Omatseye said having won the primaries, he is the lawful Senatorial candidate of the APC in the 2015 general election for Delta South Senatorial District.

    He is praying the court to hold that the APC is bound to submit his name to INEC as its candidate having won the primaries.

    The plaintiff urged the court to declare that INEC’s acceptance, recognition and publication of Emiko’s name is illegal; as well as sought an order of injunction restraining Emiko from parading himself as the candidate.

    The new suit has been assigned to Justice A.S. Adepoju.

     

  • Supreme Court strikes out APGA’s factional leader’s application against INEC

    Supreme Court strikes out APGA’s factional leader’s application against INEC

    The Supreme Court has struck out  an application by a factional  leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Maxi Okwu, seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise the list of candidates produced by his faction of the party.

    The apex court, in a ruling by Justice Sulaiman Galadina last Thursday, struck out Okwu’s application shortly after his lawyer, D. S. Pwul (SAN) withdrew it. The court proceeded to grant his prayer for an order of accelerated hearing of the substantive appeal and adjourned for March 24.

    Okwu had prayed the court for an order directing INEC (named as the 6th respondents in the mail appeal) to accept the list of candidates he submitted as the party’s candidates for the next general elections.

    He had argued that he had submitted a list of candidates to INEC after his faction held its primaries, but that the Commission has refused to act on them. He contended that INEC, under the law, lacked the power to reject any person nominated by a political party as candidate.

    Okwu argued that since the substantive appeal deals with the determination of who the actual leaders of the party were, it was wrong for INEC to deal with a faction and close its doors against the other.

    Okwu’s lawyer however withdrew the application when it was opposed by lawyers to the respondents, who argued that the prayer was alien to the issues before the court for determination.

    Umeh and Shinkafi had argued that the relief sought Okwu  was alien to the substantive suit at the trial court, the appeal decided by the Court of Appeal and  the appeal pending before the apex court.

    “Pursuant to the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on the 18th of June,2014, the 1st and 2nd respondents (Umeh and Shinkafi) are the authentic National Officers of the APGA. Contrary to the false averments, the appellants did not conduct any primaries for the nomination of APGA candidates for the 2015 general elections” he added.

    They said APGA candidates for the 2015 general elections have all been duly nominated and  there is no dispute before the court arising from the nomination of APGA candidates for the 2015 general elections.

    “As at the 2nd of February, 2015 when the instant application was filed, the processes for the nomination by political parties have been concluded pursuant to the INEC time table and schedule of activities for general elections 2015 aforementioned” he added.

    Okwu and Dickson Ogu are claiming to be the actual National Chairman and National Secretary of the party as against Victor Umeh and Alhaji Sani Shinkafi, who were pronounced the National Chairman and National Secretary of the party in a June 18, 2014 Court of Appeal judgment, a decision Okwu and Ogu are now challenging at the Supreme Court.

    Okwu and Ogu are, by their current appeal at the Supreme Court, challenging the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja delivered on June 18, 2014 which affirmed Umeh as the National Chairman of APGA and Shinkafi as the National Secretary of the party.

    The appellants want the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja allow their appeal and declare them the authentic national officers of the party..