Ime Akpan
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has barred its controversial commissioner, Mrs. Amina Zakari, and other national commissioners from the collation of presidential poll results and other strands of elections.
It would be recalled that earlier in the month, scathing criticisms trailed INEC’s appointment of Zakari as the chairperson of the commission’s advisory committee and presidential election collation officer due to her blood ties with President Muhammadu Buhari.
“No national commissioner is in charge of collation of presidential poll results. It is true that there is what is called collation centre is but it is separate from the collation secretariat, which is responsible for the collation of results.
“No national commissioner will be appointed into the Secretariat Committee. So, Hajiya Amina Zakari or any national commissioner does not have anything to do with the collation of results,” said a source.
To ensure transparency in the process, he said INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu would solely man the result collation centre in the February 16 presidential election adding that he would not share his constitutional responsibility as the chairman of the collation secretariat with anybody.
He said the INEC chairman had expressed concern about the increasing violent tendencies by politicians and youths who could be used by politicians to carry out nefarious activities.
He said the elections might be disrupted if the security agencies refuse or fail to carry out their jobs, in line with INEC’s specifications.
The source also said the electoral body had decided to allow members of the accredited civil society groups, local/international election observers and the media access to its Situation Room.
The Situation Room is a centre where all results from all states for the presidential election are counted and collated before they are finally announced.
The room is unique to INEC it is its internal control mechanism and the core activity of the commission, which is not usually open to outsiders.
“We have decided to open up the Situation Room for members of the civil society groups, party’s members, local/international election observers and the media. But they would have to be accredited. The greatest thing for us is that the process is opened,”
“Related to the collation centre is our situation room. The international observers and other stakeholders want us to open up the Situation Room.
“The commission met on Saturday and decided that we will grant visitation rights to accredited observers, civil society organisations and the media.
“Observers might not be allowed to see all things but they can come in and out of the situation room. The greatest thing INEC has done with this is openness,” said INEC source.
There has been pressure on INEC to grant international and local observers access to its situation room during the elections, especially with President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. It was canvassed that it would make the election transparent and makes the result they will declare believable.
The INEC officer also urged Nigerians and the international community not to entertain any fear about the integrity by the electoral body to conduct credible election, saying that the commission had over the years, built huge capacity to conduct credible elections.
He, however, said that INEC has its own limitations, adding that “we can only do what we can do.’’
According to him, Yakubu is concerned that with the increasing violence tendencies by politicians and the number of youths who could be used by politicians to carry out nefarious activities, the elections might be disrupted if the security agencies refuse or fail to carry out their jobs, in line with INEC’s specifications.
“If we have violence, many elections could be declared inconclusive; that is my fear. For now, it is a big issue for all of us. Many of the registered voters are young people; they don’t have patience on the day of election. And they can easily be used by politicians to disrupt the election’’, the INEC officer added.
He also revealed that the commission had virtually finished its recruitment of ad-hoc staff for the elections, with majority of the recruited presiding officers coming from the National Youth Services Corps (NYSC) members, adding that in states where they don’t have enough corps members, some final year students were recruited from the federal institutions – universities and polytechnics.
As for the collation/returning officers, he revealed that those recruited were of professorial grade from federal universities, who were carefully selected in conjunction with the vice-chancellors of the universities they operate from.
On cases arising from party primaries, the source said INEC had been joined in about 639 cases.
“Between August 2018 and last week, we have been dragged to court 639 times on matters relating to the conduct of party primaries.
“We have received about 584 requests for Certified True Copy (CTC) of documents. We also have 186 protests and petitions from aggrieved persons.
“The management of litigations is going to be a big issue in February election,” he said.With The Nation/ThisDay reports
