Politics
It’s Not Easy To Conduct Elections In Bayelsa, Kogi, Imo – INEC
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states as difficult areas to conduct elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this at the quarterly meeting with heads of media organisations on Wednesday, in Abuja.
Yakubu, who did not explain further on his observation, said there were no election season any longer because of the avalanche of elections mostly linked to resignation or deaths.
He said the November 11 governorship polls would be different because the commission would improve on the successes recorded during the 2023 general elections.
He identified lack of Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal as one of the reasons electoral offenders go scot-free. He said the country’s electoral process would remain ineffective without proper agency to deal with electoral offenders.
According to him, Nigeria should revisit the recommendations made by the Electoral Reforms Panels headed by Justice Mohammed Uwais (retd), Sheik Ahmed Lemu and Dr. Ken Nnamani, which were set up by the Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari administrations, respectively.
“Here we are, the commission is saddled with the responsibility for prosecution of electoral offenders. And I’ve said this repeatedly that in our case, some of the offenders may be INEC officials.
“How practicable is it for us to get ourselves prosecuted? That’s why consistently, committee upon committee have made recommendation since the Justice Uwais committee of 2009, Lemu committee of 2011, Nnamani committee of 2017 that there should be an electoral offences commission to deal with all violators of the electoral laws, whoever they are, whether they are voters, INEC officials or adhoc staff. “So, that is a practical concern. Some of the things we have been doing may not lead to successful prosecution in the manner that we’re dealing with them. Now let’s look at this scenario. You have security personnel deployed for elections. Now, during elections, take an example of a police officer posted from Abuja to say Delta State for election duties; that police officer then makes arrest. Immediately after the election, the policeman comes back to Abuja and in the next six months, he may be in Sokoto, but he’s the investigating police officer.
“The law says that electoral offenders should be prosecuted in the magistrate court, the High Court of state or the high court a of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) not federal high court in the state where the cause of action has risen. So, that policeman that was moved from Abuja then to Sokoto in a manner of speed is the investigating police officer. By the time you are ready to prosecute in Delta where the cause of action took place, the policeman would have lost trail of the case and might not even know where the case file is and would have made prosecution very difficult,” he said.
In his contribution, the President, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo, stressed the need for stakeholders to address the issue of hate speech and misinformation by seeking ways to combat them without infringing on the principles of free speech.
According to him, stakeholders must also discuss how to “ensure equitable access to media platforms for all political actors, promoting inclusivity and fair representation.”
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed, through a second reading, a bill seeking to retain immunity for the Office of the President and remove immunity from the Vice President, the Governors and the Deputy Governors.
The bill was one of the 42 considered and passed through the second reading stage during plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Benjamin Kalu, in Abuja.
Sponsored by Hon. Solomon Bob (Rivers PDP), the bill is seeking the amendment of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution to guard against abuse of office and to ensure transparency in governance.
The long title of the proposed legislation read: “A Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to qualify the immunity conferred on the President, remove the immunity conferred on the Vice President, the Governors and their deputies, in order to curb corruption, eradicate impunity and enhance accountability in public office and for related matters.”
Key amendments include changes to Section 308 of the Constitution, which currently grants immunity to the president, vice president, governors, and deputy governors while in office.
The proposed bill will amend subsection 3 to ensure that immunity only applies to the President and the vice president when acting as President under Section 145 of the Constitution.
Additionally, a new subsection 4 will be introduced to make the immunity clause inapplicable if the office holder is acting in an unofficial capacity, engaging in actions beyond the powers of the office, or involved in criminal conduct.
“The bill seeks to foster transparency and strengthen the fight against corruption by making public officials more accountable for their actions, both in and out of office.”
“Section 308 of the principal Act is amended by:(a) substituting a new subsection (3) as follows: “(3) This section applies to a person holding the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Vice President only when acting as President, in line with Section 145 of this Constitution.
Creating sub section (4) thereto as follows:”(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall be inapplicable where the person to whom this section applies is acting in an unofficial capacity or where the conduct of the person is beyond the powers of his office or the conduct is criminal in nature.
“This Bill may be cited as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) Act 2024.
The bill is currently awaiting further debate and consideration by the National Assembly.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has written to notify Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi Central, about the petition by constituents seeking her recall from the national assembly.
INEC said it has also received the contact details of the petitioners.
“Pursuant to section 69 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, I write to notify you of the receipt of a petition from representatives of registered voters in your constituency seeking your recall from the senate.
“The notification is in line with the provisions of clause 2 (a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.
“This letter is also copied to the presiding officer of the senate and simultaneously published on the commission’s website. Thank you”, the letter read.
The letter was signed by Ruth Oriaran Anthony, secretary to the commission.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Wednesday, INEC said it has now received the updated contact details from representatives of petitioners seeking to recall the senator.
In the statement, Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, said a letter notifying the senator of the petition has been delivered to her official address, copied to the senate presiding officer, and published on the commission’s website.
“The next step is to scrutinise the list of signatories submitted by the petitioners to ascertain that the petition is signed by more than one half (over 50%) of the registered voters in the constituency. This will be done in the coming days.
“The outcome, which will be made public, shall determine the next step to be taken by the Commission. We once again reassure Nigerians that the process will be open and transparent”, Mr Olumekun said.
Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan had recently accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexually harassing her.
The allegation came in the wake of seating arrangement related altercation between Senator. Akpabio and the Kogi Central senator at the red chamber
She was subsequently suspended from the senate for six months for “gross misconduct” over the incident.
The constituents behind the recall move also accused her of “gross misconduct, abuse of office, and deceitful behaviour”.
The senator has denied wrongdoing and called the recall effort a “coordinated suppression” of her voice.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the second reading of a bill to upgrade the Lagos State 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to full-fledged Local Government Areas (LGAs ).
The bill, was sponsored by James Faleke, Babajimi Benson, Enitan Badru, and 19 other lawmakers.
The bill is titled “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to Accommodate the Thirty-Seven (37) Development Area Councils of Lagos State as Full-Fledged Local Government Areas, Increasing the Total Number of Local Government Areas in the Federation to Eight Hundred and Eleven (811), and for Related Matters (HB. 1498),”
Once fully enacted, Nigeria’s total number of LGAs will rise from 774 to 811, with Lagos overtaking Kano and Katsina, which currently have 44 and 34 LGAs, respectively.
Proponents of the bill argue that granting full LGA status to the LCDAs would bring governance closer to the people. The 37 LCDAs were created by President Bola Tinubu in 2003 when he was governor of Lagos State.
However, it’s worth noting that the Lagos State House of Assembly has been working on a bill to replace the 37 LCDAs with newly designated administrative areas.