INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu
By JOHN ONAH, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called on security agencies to work more closely with the commission to address the issue of vote buying in the forthcoming Osun state governorship election scheduled for July 16th, 2022.
Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the call at the weekend during a Special Meeting Of The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to review security arrangements for the Osun state Governorship election.
Addressing members of the Security community present, the INEC Chairman who doubles as Co-Chairman of ICCES said “arising from the experience in recent elections, vote buying remains a major area of concern. We appreciate the role played by the anti-corruption and security agencies in apprehending some of the perpetrators of this brazen assault on our democracy”.
“In particular, we are working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure the prosecution of persons arrested in the recent Ekiti Governorship election. Action will commence as soon as the EFCC completes its investigation. I appeal to all security agencies to continue to join hands with the Commission to tackle this menace.”
Prof. Yakubu appreciated the efforts of the security agencies in ensuring the smooth and peaceful conduct of the Ekiti election. He said; “the synergy between the Commission and the security agencies on the one hand, and among the security agencies on the other, ensured a seamless coordination of efforts resulting in the widely acclaimed success of the election”.
He noted that “security was well-coordinated. The election was peaceful. Personnel and materials were deployed promptly. Election Day processes commenced as scheduled. Election technology functioned optimally. Results were transmitted from the Polling Units and collated at the various collation centres in record time.”
“I must, on behalf of the Commission, convey our appreciation to all members of ICCES for the success of the election. We must continue to build on the success of the Ekiti experience to ensure improved performance in subsequent elections, including the 2023 General Election”, he said.
On securing the electoral space for the Osun governorship election, the INEC Chairman explained that “the Commission is keeping a close watch on the security situation in Osun State. Although it is generally calm at the moment, we are nevertheless concerned about reports of clashes in some places”.
He narrated an unfortunate incident of attempted PVC theft. According to him, “In one recent example, the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) was disrupted in Erin Oke and Erin Ijesha Wards of Oriade Local Government Area resulting in the loss of 46 PVCs. While the matter is being investigated by the police, the collection of PVCs for the affected Wards is now taking place in the INEC office in Ijebu-Jesha”.
“Meanwhile, the State office has compiled the Voter Identification Numbers (VINs) of the cards and the Commission has already reprinted the PVCs for the affected voters. I would like to assure all valid registrants in Osun State that no one will be disenfranchised on account of such an incident. It is futile for anyone to attempt to vote using another person’s PVC. The BVAS biometric accreditation will expose such fraud and persons apprehended will be prosecuted under the law”.
The INEC Chairman also spoke on the huge requests for Certified True Copies of documents which the Commission has been dealing with, and observed that they may be arising as a result of breach of internal democracy within political parties than those involving the conduct of the main elections .
He said “let me seize this opportunity to once again reassure all Nigerians who applied for Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents arising from the recent party congresses, primaries and nomination of candidates that all requests are being attended to expeditiously despite the huge quantities of documents involved”.
“Nigerian elections, especially the conduct of primaries for the nomination of candidates by political parties, is one of the most litigated in the world. As at yesterday evening (Friday 1st July 2022), 216 requests have so far been processed involving the certification of over One Million Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand (1,650,000) pages of documents.”
“Indeed, there are now far more cases challenging the breach of internal democracy within political parties than those involving the conduct of the main elections by INEC. We will continue to work round the clock, including the weekends, to ensure that we attend to all applications received at the headquarters of the Commission promptly.”
On his part, the Co-Chairman of ICCES and National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd), noted that “records from the conduct of the last Ekiti State Governorship election indicated an impressive performance by the INEC as well the ICCES member agencies as there were no any major incident of security concern recorded during and after the election”.
Represented by Mr. Sanusi Galadima, the NSA however maintained that more needs to be done in terms of enlightenment campaign to encourage voters to come out and cast their votes on the day of the election. This according to him “is because of the low turnout recorded during the election compared to the total number of registered voters in the State”.
The NSA called on INEC to to redouble the Voter Education and Enlightenment efforts ahead of the Osun State Guber election and the forthcoming general elections in 2023.
He urged members of ICCES “to build on the successes recorded from the Ekiti election as some disgruntled politicians may attempt to sabotage the process for their selfish gains, through vote buying and other forms of voter inducement as well as political thuggery”.
General Monguno commended the the Commission for the extension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise which was scheduled to be suspended on the 30th June, 2022.
