By Kehinde Olatunji
The Atiku Alliance for Good Governance (TAAGG) has called on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to save Nigeria’s democracy by upholding extant laws that affect conduct of the country’s Presidential and National Assembly elections and invalidating discredited polls where necessary, as recommended by law.
This followed admission by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, that the election, through which Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared winner, suffered discounts and did not fully comply with laws guiding its conduct.
He laid the blame at the doorsteps of some erring officers. Yakubu had, during a meeting with INEC Commissioners in Abuja, on Saturday, admitted that the election suffered major challenges including “implementation failures” and “behaviour of some election personnel at different levels”.
Commenting on the development, TAAGG said, in a statement in Lagos, signed by its leader, Obiora Okonkwo, urged INEC to use available legal windows to review the elections and invalidate those that were grossly challenged.
Listing available constitutional provisions available to the Commission, Okonkwo said INEC is lawfully empowered to review the conduct of the election and withhold the issuance of certificate of return to persons whose victory were marred by “implementation failures” and “behaviour of election personnel”.
The TAAGG leader cited Sections 134 (1) 9b of the Electoral Act as empowering INEC to review the elections and suspend issuance of certificates.
Specifically, Section 134(1)(b)(c) of the Electoral Act reads: An election may be questioned on any of these grounds; (b) the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the provisions of this Act, or, (c) the respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.
Okonkwo argued that by the admission of the INEC chairman and his decision to penalise officials who aided and abetted the flaws recorded in the presidential election, the Commission is now morally and legally bound to withhold the issuance of certificates of return to persons whose elections are disputed on account of the irregularities pointed out by the chairman.
He said: “By the admission of the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, it is obvious that the presidential and National Assembly election in Nigeria did not satisfy the law as spelt out by the Electoral Act.
“For this reason, therefore, it is expected that the chairman should, standing on extant lawful provisions, review the conduct of his officials in the performance of their duty on election day. And where found to have compromised, not only should they be penalised, but also the specific results affected by their compromise should be isolated and discounted from the total votes cast and treated as invalid votes.
“This is the surest way of sanitising the electoral system because it will make no sense to penalise INEC officers found to have compromised the election and yet retain the compromised results. Allowing such compromised results to stand makes nonsense of any effort to strengthen the electoral system in Nigeria and further jeopardises Nigeria’s march to steady democracy.”
Source: The Guardian