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Tag: Mahmood Yakubu

  • INEC urges UNDP to resuscitate support to democratic empowerment

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has beckoned on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to resuscitate the implementation of its Support to Democratic Empowerment (SDE) Phase 1, in Nigeria.

    INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the call when he received the UNDP new Resident Representative to Nigeria, who paid a courtesy visit to the commission on Wednesday in Abuja.

    SDE is aimed at enlighten and mobilize stakeholders including the women groups, youths, traditional and religious leaders to participate massively in the general elections.

    The programme is also to conduct civic and voter education, as part of the media campaign, in order to sensitize and create awareness among the citizens for effective participation in the general elections.

    Yakubu said that the programme should have commended in 2018 but was suspended due to the challenges of time and funding.

    “There is one pending issue that we need to resuscitate immediately, which is implementation of the Support to Democratic Empowerment (SDE) Phase 1.

    “The implementation should have commenced in May 2018 through to December 2019.

    “The plan was not fully implemented for a number of reasons, but essentially the pressure on time on the commission because of general elections as well as the issue of funding.

    “I am glad to note that the plan is being revised by our technical teams. I look forward to the work of the two teams.

    “I wish to once again reassure you that we will jointly implement the recommendations in the current electoral circle and beyond,’’ Yakubu said.

    Yakubu described the UN and UNDP in particular as long term partners in support of elections, good governance and democracy in Nigeria.

    He said that INEC valued their partnership and it would continue to work with UNDP in promoting democracy and good governance.

    Yakubu recalled that in 2017 the UN Secretary General sent a Need Assessment Mission to Nigeria, as well as the Special Representative for West African and the Shahel, Mohammed Chambas who also visited before and after the last general elections.

    “We profoundly appreciate the support of the union and its agencies in promoting peaceful elections and good governance in Nigeria. We have worked closely with the UNDP in many areas since 2011.

    “These include technically and advisory support for voter registration in 2011; the formulation and validation of the commission gender policy; the formulation, validation and revalidation of the commission’s communication policy; down to support to voter education and publicity.

    “Induction and retraining for new Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Uyo in 2017: the printing of two volumes election project plan in 2018; and many other activities to build capacity of the commission both technical and human.

    Read Also: INEC trains security personnel for Kogi Gov race

    “I want to reassure you of our continue willingness to collaborate, cooperate and work in partnership with you. We will extend the support to you that we have extended to all your predecessors.’’

    Speaking earlier, the UNDP Resident Representative, assured the country of the organization’s continue support and engagement with INEC in deepening credible elections and democracy in Nigeria.

    He said that the UNDP recognised INEC as a critical institution for deepening democracy.

    He said, “For UNDP globally, electoral commissions have been a key part for the work that we do, in deepening democracy and delivering the voices of those who have voted in a way that is credible and transparent.

    “So, the work that you do, commissioners and chairperson, is critical for democratization to take its root in this country and across the continent.

    “For me coming here is one of the key aspects of my duties.

    “I want to thank you and your team for the work you have done in the past, but also to congratulate you for delivering 2019 general elections.

    “Also listening and learning from the experiences that you had in the last circle and also listening to what we can do together as we move forward,’’ Yahaya said.

    On his agenda in Nigeria, Yahaya said that the UNDP would supports Nigeria’s plans, including making INEC stronger.

    “We are a leading development agency in the UN system, specifically the work on governance, reduction of poverty. For today engagement we are focus on how to engage INEC to make it stronger than it is.’’

     

  • Buhari’s lawyer shows video to quash Atiku’s server claim

    INDEPENDENT National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu has ended the speculation about the procedure adopted in transmitting results of the last general elections.

    In a video recording played on Tuesday before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), Yakubu explained that INEC jettisoned its plan to transmit elections results electronically owing to two other challenges, beside the legal constraint.

    Yakubu said before the elections, INEC officials met with telecommunication experts drawn from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the telecoms service providers during which two main challenges were identified.

    The first, he noted, was the inadequacy of telecommunication infrastructure across the country.

    The second, Yakubu said, was that of cyber insecurity which, he added, had marred such experiments (electronic transmission of election results) in some countries.

    Yakubu said: “On the issue of transmission of results electronically, I recall that we had some discussions with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). And, through the NCC, we had meetings with the telecoms service providers.

    “And we have identified blind spots in Nigeria (areas without telecommunication coverage).  Beside the issue of blind spot, we also have discussions with the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT). We have not concluded our discussion with the Nigerian Communications Satellite in that respect.

    “There are two issues. The first one, communication. With respect to the blind spots; how do you communicate?

    “Secondly, the percentage of the country that is covered by 2G, let alone 3G or 4G network, and there are no 5, in Nigeria is very small.”

    He said in view of the inadequacy in the available telecommunication infrastructure, the commission concluded that it was impossible to adopt the electronic method of election transmission, because the plan was not only to send  figures, but, in addition, pictures of forms containing details of the election results.

    Yakubu added that the commission concluded that way “because sending figures is different from sending images. So, we have challenge in the area of communication”.

    According to the INEC Chairman, the second problem was security, particularly cyber security.

    He cited examples of countries, such as Kenya and others, that tried electronic transmission of results but experienced security challenges.

    The recording was of an interview session with the INEC chairman, aired by a private television station on February 6, 2019, and in which he ruled out the possibility of INEC transmitting results electronically.

    Yesterday’s proceedings were a continuation of Monday’s where a petitioners’ witness, Segun Showunmi, tendered 48 compact discs (CDs) two of which showed where Yakubu and an INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, spoke about plans to deploy technology in the transmission of the results of the last elections.

    Showunmi, who, on Monday swiftly identified  Yakubu, Igini and the official of the television station, who anchored the interviews from the DVDs he bought,   stunned all yesterday when he had a difficulty identifying the same people in the DVD brought by President Muhammadu Buhari’s lawyer, Alex Izinyon (SAN).

    The DVD tendered by Izinyon was played at the resumption of the tribunal’s proceedings on Tuesday.

    Read Also: Just in: Security tops my agenda, says Buhari

    The tribunal had, on Monday adjourned till yesterday owing to the refusal by the lawyer to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, Chris Uche, to allow Izonyo play his DVD in the equipment the petitioners brought, and with which they played their videos.

    After the video of the interview granted by Yakubu on February 6, 2019 was played with the equipment brought by Izinyon, Showunmi, who resumed his testimony, said he could not identify the INEC Chairman and his interviewer in the video.

    After the single DVD was played, Izinyon tendered it along with a certificate of compliance, which were both admitted by the tribunal, despite the petitioners’ lawyer’s objection.

    Tribunal Chairman Justice Mohammed Garba advised Uche to include the reason for his objection in his final written address, as agreed by parties at the pre-hearing session.

    Atiku and the PDP are, by their petition, challenging the outcome of the last presidential election won by President Buhari of the APC.

    The petitioners are claiming, in their petition, to have won the election, going by results they claimed to have got from a purported INEC server into which they argued the results were electronically transmitted.

    At the conclusion of Showunmi’s testimony, the petitioners called nine other witnesses, who all made allegations malpractices in the last presidential election.

    The witnesses, who served as PDP agents in Nasarawa State, made series of claims that the election was manipulated, even in areas where the PDP won. But they failed, under cross examination, to sustain their claim of manipulation against agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Rikita Ali, who said he served as PDP Ward Collation Agent in Lafia Local Government, Nasarawa State, claimed in his written statement that an INEC official was caught with $10,000.

    Ali said he witnessed the incident, which happened at Lafia Collation Centre, where he was present.

    The witnesses, who said he had no evidence of the police report of the incident,  said the INEC official is still alive, but that could not say if the official has been arrested or prosecuted.

    Another witness, Mohammed Hayatu, who said he retired as a Customs official, claimed,in his written statement, that Atiku is a Nigerian by birth and was qualified to vote and be voted for.

    Under cross examination, Hayatu, who claimed Atiku was older than him by 20 years, confessed that all he said about Atiku were what his (Hayatu’s) late father told him about Atiku and his family.

    Hayatu said he also learnt that part of Adamawa Province was part of Northern Cameroon, until the plebiscite of 1961, which brought it back to Nigeria.

    The witness said Jadda, where Atiku was born was never part of Cameroon.

    Earlier, another petitioners’ witness, Magdiel  Samaki, who said he was a Nigerian Ambassador to Romania, said he could not recall history relating to the plebiscite conducted in Northern Cameroon in 1961.

    Under cross-examination, Samaki was asked to read part of his written statement, where he said he first met Atiku’s mother in 1965 and recalled Atiku’s early years.

    When reminded that he claimed that his was born in 1946 and could not have witnessed Atiku’s early years, the witness said he read about it and was also told.

    The witness said: “To the best of my knowledge and what I know, Jadda was in Northern Nigeria, in Adamawa Province, even before 1946.

    On whether he is aware that prior to 1919, Cameroon was administered by Germany, the witness said he was not born then.

    Samaki said he did not know when the First World War ended.

    The petitioners are expected to call more witnesses at the resumption of the tribunal’s sitting today.

     

     

  • 2023: INEC learnt vital lessons from 2019 polls, says Yakubu

    THE Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has said the commission learnt a lot of lessons from the conduct of this year’s general election.

    He assured Nigerians that the lessons learnt will guide the commission at ensure that future elections are more credible and better organised.

    Yakubu spoke on Sunday at the opening of this year’s post-election review meeting of the commission at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, the Lagos State capital.

    Expressing INEC’s determination to continue to improve on the credibility of elections in the country, the chairman said the commission had held 11 meetings with crucial stakeholders since the conclusion of the last elections.

    He said: “After the 2019 general election, we are more determined than ever to improve on the quality of elections in Nigeria. We have held 11 meetings in Lagos and Abuja with stakeholders, ranging from INEC officials, political parties, the media, security agencies, civil society organisations (CSOs), among others, as part of efforts to review the last election and learn from it.

    “Today’s meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) is the 12th and concluding one in the process. We have learnt a lot from the conduct of the last general election. Vital lessons have been learnt from our interactions with stakeholders on how we can improve on our efforts.

    Read Also: ‘INEC must learn from past mistakes’

    “In all facets of our duties as an electoral umpire, we are determined to improve on electoral processes in the country, using the lessons we have learnt from the last general election.

    “After each election, plans for the next election should promptly begin. That is what we are doing now as we pursue our determination to improve the electoral processes in future.”

    INEC’s National Commissioner Dr. Mustapha Lecky said the review meeting was expected to discuss 14 major issues raised from the various meetings with stakeholders.

    The participants were expected to proffer solutions they would like to see in the resolutions of the issues raised.

    “This is the time to look at what we did well, what we didn’t do well as well as what we didn’t do at all that we need to do. We need to proffer solutions to what was wrongly done in order to improve on the entire process.

    “We need to concern ourselves with the needs of people with disabilities as regards voting and participating in elections. There are several issues raised about this, and if we continue to ignore their concerns, they may take us to court and this will affect the next elections.

  • Server controversy: I will open up soon, says INEC chairman

    THE Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, plan to speak very soon on the server controversy trailing the conduct and outcome of the 2019 general elections.

    Yakubu said since the server matter was an issue before the Presidential Elections Tribunal, he will speak after the final judgment on all petitions.

    He, however, asked interested Nigerians to go and read the statements on oath by the petitioners and the defendants to have a full grasp of the issues surrounding the controversial server.

    But INEC plans to create more Polling Units (PUs) for accessibility to make voting faster and easier for the electorate.

    Yakubu said the swing in the nation’s demography has led to a population surge in some cities.

    He said while the Federal Capital Territory has had 562 Polling Units since its creation, the population of FCT has doubled over the years.

    The nation presently boasts of 119, 973 PUs in 8,809 wards in a country with 84,004, 084 registered voters.

    Apart from Polling Units, the INEC chairman said delimitation of constituencies has become imperative.

    Yakubu spoke at the conclusion of a session on the review of the 2019 General Elections with the media in Abuja.

    Responding to a question, he said: “In our jurisprudence, you cannot comment on a live matter in court. The matter is subjudice but after the judgment, I will speak on the server issue.

    “There are a lot of documents you have not got. There are statements on oath by the petitioners and the defendants. Go and read these statements on oath. It is actually prudent to go back and read the statements.”

    Read Also: INEC fixes Aug. 3 for Plateau bye-election

    In Yakubu’s view, trust in the electoral process is more important than technology.

    He added: “In some countries, they will be campaigning till the election day because there is trust. But in Nigeria, we print ballot papers, entrust these ballot papers with the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) and distribution is always done with heavy security. So, here, it is a question of trust.

    “Remember, some people attacked INEC offices in some states during the last elections because of ballot papers and other sensitive materials. Trust is key in any electoral process. The major difference between us and other countries is trust.

    “I cannot remember any country in Europe that does electronic voting; they still engage in manual process. Holland tried electronic voting but after 20 years, they reverted to ballot papers.”

    Yakubu admitted that going by the nation’s fluid demography, the creation of more PUs is necessary.

    He said: “Each time the commission makes attempt to create more Polling Units for accessibility to make voting faster and easier, it becomes a burning issue. We have to come up with the idea of Voting Points in some places to cater for increased number of voters.

    “Definitely, creation of more Polling Units has to be done but we need the support of all stakeholders, including the media. We will continue to see what we can do to create more PUs. Having more Polling Units does not confer advantage on any state, group or political party.

    “The idea of more Polling Units is about how Nigerians can be served. Satellite imagery has shown that there are under-served and un-served settlements.

    “Before the last Area Council elections in the FCT, we saw the need to create more Voting Points because the number of Nigerians who have trooped into the territory has become higher and the Polling Units have not changed.

    “The FCT used to be the smallest in population but its figure is now higher.”

    The voting statistics as follows: Registered voters (84, 004, 084);

    Polling Units (119, 973); and Number of Wards (8, 809).

    Yakubu said the anxiety over Polling Units was affecting the delimitation of constituencies in the country.

    He said: “The issues over the creation of more PUs are the same with delimitation of constituencies. We will continue to dialogue with all the stakeholders. Whatever requires legal framework amendment, we will approach the National Assembly.”

    There have been challenges on delimitation of constituencies in the last 36 years.

    The nation had gone through delimitation in 1922 during the colonial period; 1954; 1964; 1979 and 1983.

    INEC had on June 30, 2008 launched a nationwide consultation for another delimitation of constituencies but it was greeted with protests of likely “manipulation of the process to gerrymander state boundaries whose social and economic impact the complainants were not sure of.”

    The provisions for delimitation are contained in sections 112 -115 of the 1999 Constitution.

    Section 112 says: Subject to the provisions of sections 91 and 113 of this constitution, INEC shall divide every state in the Federation into such number of state constituencies as is equal to three or four times the number of Federal Constituencies within that state.

    Section 113 reads: “The boundaries of each state constituency shall be such that the number of inhabitants thereof is as nearly equal to the population quota as is reasonably practicable.

    According to Section 114, “INEC shall review the division of every state into constituencies at intervals of 10 years and may alter such constituencies in accordance with the provisions of this section to such extent as it may consider desirable in the light of the review.

    “INEC may at any time carry out such a review and alter the constituencies in accordance with the provisions of this section to such extent as it considers necessary in consequence of any alteration of the boundaries of the state or by reason of the holding of a census of the population of Nigeria in pursuance of an Act of the National Assembly.”

    Section 115 says: “Where the boundaries of any State Constituency established under -112 of this constitution are altered in accordance with the provisions of Section 114 of this constitution, that alteration shall come into effect after it has been approved by the National Assembly and after the current life of the House of Assembly.”

  • Polls: INEC chair, IGP, others blame politicians for violence, malpractices

    Politicians and their agents should carry the can for the malpractices and violence that characterised the 2019 general elections.

    This was the submission of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Mahmood Yakubu; Acting Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba as well as other stakeholders.

    They spoke on Wednessay in Abuja at the Forum of Anti-corruption Situation Room organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA).

    In a keynote address, Prof Yakubu said vote buying and selling have become a source of great worry to the Commission, the people and the international community.

    The INEC chair, who was represented by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, narrated how politicians and their agents devised various methods to compromise the electoral process.

    According to him, one of the methods employed by the politicians and their agents was to buy up Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from voters in the political “safe haven” of their opponents ahead of an election.

    He also accused them of compromising security agents and some ad hoc staff of INEC who looked the other way while votes were being bought and sold.

    Yakubu said that some money bags bought over agents of other political parties who betrayed their own political parties for money.

    The INEC chair cited also situations where voters were made to surrender their PVCs to middlemen as a precondition for assessing government amenities and facilities.

    Read Also: INEC releases timetable for Bayelsa, Kogi gov polls this week

    He said: “Politicians compromised traditional and religious leaders and community leaders by persuading them to persuade voters in their domain to vote in a particular way.

    “In some instances, they persuaded willing ad hoc staff to abandon the use of Smart Card Readers and provision of social amenities close to Election Day”.

    The INEC chief charged the various Election Petitions Tribunals to prosecute proven cases of electoral offences pending the establishment of a designated body for that purpose.

    Also speaking at the event, Acting IG Adamu said police personnel on election duty were constrained by the law which prevented them from bearing firearms around voting areas.

    The IG, who was represented by Assistant Inspector-General Peter Ogunyanwo, said the constraint made it impossible for officers on election duties to confront armed political thugs who attacked voters and disrupted voting.

    The IG observed that politicians lacked patriotism, nationalism and the fear of God in their conduct during elections.

    He lamented that politicians, who he described as beneficiaries of electoral malpractices, lacked the required will and patriotism to put in place the needed electoral reforms.

    According to him, measures prescribed by law to punish electoral offenders were not punitive enough to deter electoral offenders.

    He cited the provision of Section 308 of the Constitution, which confers immunity from prosecution on sitting governors and their deputies when they commit offences.

    The AIG made allusions to the Rivers and Kano states, where the sitting governor and deputy governor allegedly committed electoral infractions during the March 9 governorship election but who could not be prosecuted as a result of their constitutional immunity.

    “In some cases, the law prescribes a fine of N40 as punishment for people caught with unlawful possession of firearms and other dangerous weapons. So where do we go from here”, the IG said.

    The police chief also blamed greed and stupidity on the part of voters who sell their votes to desperate politicians, saying they end up going back to their squalid conditions afterwards.

    He called on civil society groups and human rights organisations to mobilise for other segments of the public to mount pressure on the National Assembly to ensure birth of electoral reforms that will prescribe stiffer penalties for electoral offenders.

    On his part, the Labour leader blamed vote buying and selling on pervasive poverty and in the land. According to him, most of the voters could not resist monetary offers for their votes by desperate politicians.

    He bemoaned a situation where some state governments pay civil servants, particularly teachers as little as N7000 monthly salary.

    Describing the electoral process in the country as work in progress, Wabba noted, having realised that votes now count, politicians have resorted to vote buying from impoverished electorate.

    The NLC noted that there is no way a compromised electoral process can produce transparent and competent leaders or good governance.

    The situation, he said, has made it impossible for the people to hold their leaders accountable and called for drastic electoral reforms to sanitise the process.

    Activist lawyer, Mr Femi Falana who chaired the event, canvased electronic voting as solution to electoral malpractice, saying the country was ripe enough for it.

    According to him, vote buying and ballot manipulation started in 2003 with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and that the situation has continued to escalate with every election circle.

    He blamed the Election Petitions Tribunals and the courts for condoning electoral practices where billions of naira were raised for the election of individuals against the provisions of the Electoral Act.

    “This is how our courts endorse electoral manipulation and criminality”. He called on the INEC and the civil society organisations to assist the police in ensuring the prosecution of electoral offenders.

    Falana said the current practice where cases of electoral offenders are left to state prosecutors to handle is subject to abuse by Attorneys General who withdraw such cases at will.

  • PDP to INEC: declare Imo North senatorial result

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to direct the immediate announcement of the already collated results of the February 23, 2019 Imo North Senatorial election, as well as March 9 rerun poll, in which the PDP candidate, Hon. Ndubueze Patrick, is said to be in clear lead.

    The party cautions that the continuous delay in announcing the final result, after returns have been established at the polling units, wards and local government levels is already heightening tension in the state.

    A statement Friday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said its public knowledge that the results have been moved to INEC headquarters in Abuja following the alleged harassment of INEC officials in Imo state by agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Action Alliance (AA).

    The statement said, “From the collated results in the February 23 elections, the PDP won in all the local governments in Imo North before polls in two local governments; Isiala Mbano and Ehime Mbano were cancelled and scheduled for rerun.

    READ ALSO: Lagos PDP to INEC: Don’t involve NURTW members in elections logistics

    “Already, from the results declared, the PDP led in Okigwe, Onuimo, Obowo and Ihite/Uboma Local Government Areas with 21, 254, ahead of APC and AA, which scored 12,756 and 12,236 respectively.

    “At the March 9 rerun elections, when the AA and the APC realized that the PDP was winning, they resorted to mutilation and alteration of results, particularly with the collaboration of collation officers in Ehime Mbano, before the intervention of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who called for proper scrutiny of documents following protests by the people.

    “The PDP believes that the INEC had completed its investigation on the documents and results of the rerun election, which established our victory in that election.

    “The party therefore urges Prof. Yakubu to douse the tension in Imo state by directing the declaration of the final results and return our candidate, Ndubueze Patrick, who has been legitimately elected by the people of Imo North to represent them at the Senate”.

  • INEC issues certificates of returns next week

    Winners in the last National Assembly elections will be issued with certificates of returns Thursday next week, the Independent National Electoral Commission has said.

    This is as the commission said it has fully deployed voting materials to all the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the country.

    Disclosing this at a meeting with security chiefs, the Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu also said the Commission has effectively tackled the challenge of logistics.

    Read Also: Kidnapped INEC adhoc staff released- Police

    He posited that Materials for the election have been delivered to all States and the FCT.

    He further added that movement of materials to the Local Government Areas will be completed yesterday (Thursday ), while all materials and relevant personnel will arrive at the Registration Area Centres (RACs) today . Yakubu who was beaming with confidence also assured that going by the arrangement on ground, all polling units will open at 8.00 am nationwide.

  • Wanted: Electoral Offences Commission

    In the build-up to the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) held confidence-building sessions and consultations with many stakeholders. It interfaced with leaders of the political parties, civil society groups, security forces and legislators, at the end of which it confidently declared that all was set for the election. The commission assured Nigerians that it had put in place measures to tackle logistics challenges that had been the bane of previous elections. In liaison with the police and other  security forces, INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said no one would be able to tamper with the process as they had all learnt lessons from a thorough review of previous elections.

    The first indication that the commission might not be right came when it had to postpone the federal elections by seven days, on the excuse that it could not get the logistics right. Then came February 23 when the presidential and National Assembly elections were held in the 36 states of the federation. As usual, ballot box snatching, shootings, attacks on opponents, arson and maiming were the order of the day, in Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Abia and Oyo states, among others.

    We agree with Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), that electoral malpractices will continue to mar our elections until offenders know that they will be apprehended, arraigned and duly sentenced. So far, they are encouraged to perpetrate the nefarious activities because they are shielded from justice by their godfathers. Where they are arrested, investigated and arraigned, shameless state attorneys-general succumb to pressures by the godfathers to set the offenders free.

    However, we do not agree with the learned silk that the way out is to saddle the already overburdened INEC with this task. While Mr. Falana is right in pointing out that the commission has the power to prosecute such offenders under section 150 of the Electoral Act 2010, the commission has argued that it lacked the capacity to undertake the task. Every election year, the commission is slammed with pre and post-election cases, to which it is joined. This year, about 600 such cases were filed and the commission was expected to be represented in court. It is distracted from performing its primary duty of organising so many elections at once, as some of the cases are not determined until a few days to the election. In some cases, courts of coordinate jurisdiction gave conflicting verdicts. Some bind INEC, others unbind, leaving the commission in a quandary on what to do. In 2011, widespread violence greeted the general elections and 943 Nigerians were killed, while 838 others sustained varying degrees of injury. The police succeeded in apprehending 626 suspected hoodlums, but nothing came out of it. This must have emboldened them to continue in 2015. Four years after, they are everywhere again, visiting terror on neighbourhoods and making the country a laughing stock before the international community. This might have informed President Muhammadu Buhari’s exasperation on the eve of the presidential election that made him warn that would-be snatchers of ballot boxes must be prepared to pay with their lives.

    Cutting corners has never paid. So, we call on the President and the 9th National Assembly to give full effect to recommendations of the Lawal Uwais, Ahmed Lemu and Ken Nnamani’s electoral reform panels. The panels have recommended the unbundling of INEC to allow it concentrate on its core duty of organising elections. Other ancillary duties such as registration and monitoring of political parties’ finances, as well as prosecution of election offenders should be the responsibility of other bodies. We associate, therefore, with the recommendation that an Electoral Offences Commission be established to handle the plethora of cases that arise from elections. Violence is a crime, not just against the individual, but the state. If those who stole from the public treasury could be prosecuted, all those who conspired to subvert the general will should also be brought to book. If we have an Electoral Offences Commission, it becomes easier to monitor the cases it is handling and would-be offenders at subsequent elections are dissuaded. Besides, the rough necks recruited by politicians to visit mayhem at polling units and collation centres have been known to turn their arms against other innocent citizens in-between elections. The trend must be arrested now.

    The responsibility of sanitising the electoral system rests on the federal executive, the National Assembly, INEC, civil society and law enforcement agencies.

    This is a point when far-reaching actions must be taken to save the nation from this perennial heartache. The Nigerian Bar Association should rise above petty and narrow interests to participate in this patriotic duty. Nigeria must be saved from the clutches of those who have held her hostage over the years, arresting her development and unleashing abject poverty on the people. Everything must be done to ensure that only those who have the people’s mandate at all levels are voted into power. This will reinforce the maxim that power belongs to the people.

  • INEC adjourns for an hour, to take remaining states tonight

    .Results from 26 states, FCT have been submitted

     

    The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has said that the commission is going to take the results from the remaining states.

    Results from 27 states have already been taking including FCT.

    The second collation day commenced with Niger state which also went to the APC with 612,371 votes to 218, 052 for PDP. There are 2,375,568 registered voters across the 15 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and 911,964 accredited voters.

    The state recorded a total vote cast of 896,976 and 851,937 valid votes. 45 votes were rejected while 71,200 were cancelled.

    In Jigawa state Buhari scored 794,738 against Atiku’s 289,895 votes.

    Jigawa with 27 LGAs, has 2 ,104,889 registered voter population of which 1,171,801 were accredited to vote while the State recorded a total vote cast of 1,149,922 .

    The recorded valid vote for Jigawa is 1,106,244 while 43, 678 votes were rejected.

    Kaduna state also go to Buhari with 993,445 votes as against PDP’s 640, 612 votes.

    Atiku fought back in Anambra state with 524,738 votes as against APC 33,298.

    He also had a slim victory in Oyo state as PDP scored 366,690 as against 365,229 for APC.

    Adamawa also went into the bag of PDP candidate who happens to be from that state. He won with 410,266 votes against Buhari’s 378,078 votes.

    Adamawa with 21 LGAs has 1,959,322 registered population with only 874,920 accredited voters.

    The total valid vote is 811,534 while rejected votes are 49,222 given a total number of 860,756.

    Bauchi went to the APC scored 798,428 while PDP scored 209,313. Valid vote 1,024, 307 rejected votes 37,648 and total vote cast is 1,061, 955

    APC also captured Lagos votes as it edged PDP with 580,825 against the opposition’s 448,015.

    The ruling party also followed with victory in Ogun state where it scored 281,762 as against PDP’s 194, 655. The registered number of voters for Ogun state is 2,336,887 while 613,399 was accredited and total vote cast stood at 605,938.

    Edo state with 18 Local Government Areas and 2,150,127 registered voters, went to Atiku of the PDP with a vote of 275, 691 as against Muhammmed Buhari who scored 267,842 votes.

    Accredited voters the poll was 604,915 while total valid vote is 560,711. The total rejected poll is 38, 517, given a total vote cast 599, 228.

    The number of cancellation which was carried out in 48 polling units is 42,176.

    The vote of Benue state went to PDP as it pulled a narrow margin victory over the ruling party with a figure of 356,817 as against APC’s 347,668.

    Edo with a voter populations of 2, 391,276 has a total vote cast of 763,872, while the valid vote is 728,912.

    The rejected vote is 34,960 while 122,989 votes were cancelled in 172 polling units.

    Atiku also picked Imo with 334,923 votes as against APC’s 140,463 votes.

    There are 2,037,569 registered voters while 585,741 were accredited to vote. The valid vote is 511,586 and rejected vote is 31,191. Hence, the total vote cast is 542,777 while 63,048 votes were cancelled in 97 polling units in twelve LGAs.

    Plateau state also gave its vote to Atiku as he scored 548,665 while Buhari scored 468,555.

    The registered voter population is 2,423, 381 while accredited voter for the election is 1,074,042.

    The total valid vote is 1,034,853 and the total vote cast is 1,063,862. The number of rejected vote is 28,009.

    Kano as expected went to Buhari who scored 1,464,768 against Atiku’s 392,593 votes. Kano which has a total registered vote population of 5,381,581 only second to Lagos recorded the highest turnout with 2,006,410 accredited voters.

    The total vote cast is 1,964,751 while valid vote stood at 1,891,134. Rejected vote is 73,617 and the cancelled vote is 43,900, affecting 69 polling units.

    Katsina also went the way of Buhari who scored 1,232,133 against Atiku’s 308,056.

    Buhari hails from Katsina state which has 3r LGAs.

    The total registered voters is 3,219,422 while 1,628,865 were accredited for the election. The total valid vote in Katsina is 1,555,473 while 1,619,185 vote cast stood.

    The rejected vote is 63,712 and the cancelled vote is 12,027.

    Taraba which is the last state taken before going on an hour break went to the PDP with 374,743 votes as against APC’s 326 996 votes.

    The total registered vote is 1,777,105 while the accredited voter is 756 111.

    712 877 valid votes was recorded while the rejected vote is 28,687 and the total vote cast is 741,564.

    Cancellation of votes happened in t7 polling units across 12 LGAs, which affected 45,066 voters.

  • Drama as collation officer struggles with tabulated figures

    There was a little drama on Monday as the Collation Officer for Ondo state, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, struggled to match correctly tabulated figures with the political parties.

    The renowned Professor of International Relations on many occasions mixed up scores for political parties, prompting the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to ask him to go back.

    Yakubu was forced to ask Soremekun to go back and reconcile the results.

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    Meanwhile President Muhammadu Buhari has maintained lead in six states already announced.

    In the latest results announced, Buhari won in Kogi state wirh 285 894 to Atiku’s 218, 207.

    There were 1,640, 449 while 570, 773 were accredited for the elections.

    Prof Michael Atiku, Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, who is the Collation Officer for the state, revealed that 89,101 votes were cancelled.

    This he said was due to lots of hostility at the polling stations.

    The opposition parties however kicked over the figure of cancelled votes.