Matters arising from suspended Adamawa REC’s show of shame

The aborted attempt by the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC for Adamawa State Hudu Yunusa Ari, a lawyer, to truncate the electoral process, when recently he declared Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani), the All Progressives Congress, APC governorship candidate, midway into the collation of Results a winner, is not only disgraceful and totally unacceptable but has again underscored the imperative of reviewing the recruitment process into Nigeria’s Election Management Boards, EMBs which include INEC.

 

Though the REC was swiftly suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission, subsequently by President Muhammadu Buhari and investigation by the Nigeria Police Force to get to the root of what has been described as a ‘failed coup’ ongoing, we demand that no effort should be spared to ensure that all the personnel involved are identified and punished in accordance with the extant laws.

 

Regrettably, we recall that Ari, having usurped the powers of the Returning Officer for the Adamawa Governorship Supplementary Election that was held in 69 polling units in 20 of the 21 local government areas of the state, Prof. Mohammed Mele, and unilaterally announced the APC candidate, Benani, as the winner, when collation hadn’t been concluded thereby attracting negative reactions from the other parties especially the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 poll, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. This was followed by peaceful street protests by members of the party in Yola.

 

But Nigerians thereafter heaved a sigh of relief when the National headquarters of INEC, swung into action by annulling Ari’s action, suspending him, writing the Presidency to get him sacked and immediately directed Prof Mele to conclude the suspended collation and consequently announced Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, the PDP candidate as re-elected even though Benani had delivered an acceptance speech broadcast by the federal government owned Nigerian Television Authority, NTA based on the initial false declaration.

 

Sadly, before journalists, the state’s Commissioner of Police, CP, the Director of the Department of State Services, DSS,  as well as the Commander of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC had shamelessly escorted the now suspended REC to make the unlawful declaration in clear violation of the Electoral Act 2022 which forbids such offenses thereby fueling speculations that money might have changed hands to berthing the ignoble plot.

 

In our view, an investigation by the relevant agencies into the roles of those who perpetrated this national shame should be very fast and all encompassing to enable the INEC, which is statutorily charged with the prosecution of electoral offenders to do the needful and for the court to sanction them for violating their oath of office and serve as a deterrent to others who may want to commit similar criminality in the future.

 

Both Ari, the CP, who has been redeployed by the Inspector General of Police, the Director of DSS, the Commander of NSCDC and other accomplices connected with this infamous act must be made to face the full wrath of the law because this is not the first time such false results declaration had taken place.

 

We recall the similar unfortunate incident which occurred in Ondo in 1983 when the Governorship candidate of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, Chief Akin Omoboriowo was declared winner of the election clearly won by the candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria, and the sitting governor Chief Adekunle Ajasin now of blessed memory. But unlike the Adamawa fiasco, the Ondo electorate reacted spontaneously to the injustice by rejecting the false declaration which resulted in the killing of many people and the destruction of property worth billions of naira.

 

It is gratifying to note however that Ari’s actions did not degenerate into a constitutional crisis, that could have spelled doom perhaps not only for Adamawa but the country. We strongly believe that government has a responsibility to ensure that such flagrant disregard for due process and established electoral laws do not reoccur.

 

Similarly, the law is very clear on any electoral fraud perpetrated as Section 120 sub-section 4 of the Electoral Act 2022, stipulates that anybody involved in any false declaration of elections is liable to be prosecuted and the penalty is three years imprisonment while Section 121 of the same law prescribes 12 months imprisonment for financial inducement with regard to any election.

 

We strongly recommend that the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission, ICPC should at this point be drafted to join the current investigation since a whopping N2billion had allegedly changed hands to perpetrate the illegality.

 

Senator Dahiru and the NTA in our view, cannot completely absolve themselves of blame in this drama based on their overt conspiratorial roles even as the law also prescribes punishment for conspiracy. It was an unlikely coincidence for the NTA to have televised Benani’s acceptance speech from a false declaration by the suspended REC when news managers ought to know that it is only the Returning Officer that is statutorily empowered to announce the results of elections at all levels.

 

For instance, Section 25 of the Electoral Act empowers only the Returning Officer to declare the winner of an election at the state collation centre. “The results of all the elections shall be announced by the: Presiding Officer at the Polling Unit; Ward Collation Officer at the registration area or Ward Collation Centre; Local Government or Area Council Collation Officer at the Local Government or Area Council Collation Centre; and State Collation Officer at the State Collation Centre.”

 

Therefore, we, fully support the measures adopted so far by the INEC in standing with the electorate and defending the sanctity of the ballot and our democracy which should be seen as a beacon of hope for the nation’s electoral process, even as the electoral umpire is further encouraged to display such courage, integrity, and impartiality in the discharge of its constitutional mandate always.

 

In our estimation also, one of the most important lessons of the aborted Adamawa fiasco and the election season generally is that the conduct and integrity of INEC personnel is at the heart of a free, fair, peaceful and credible elections as well as timely and efficient deployment of technology such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS in the last general elections.

 

Again, going forward we strongly recommend that the incoming 10^th National Assembly and the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, upon assumption of office on May 29, should as a matter of national priority, begin a deliberate process of revisiting the appointments of National and Resident Electoral Commissioners as contained in the Justice Muhammad Uwais Report with a view to weed out all corrupt and extremely partisan officials from the commission. This cannot be achieved by self cleansing.

 

In other words, we challenge the incoming administration to consider adopting some major recommendations of the Report not yet captured by the Electoral Act, such as the composition of the INEC Board, funding of the commission, tenure of office, as well as security of tenure of chairman and commissioners in order to avert the electoral fraud that was averted in Adamawa.

 

Specifically, we demand that the National Assembly in proposing amendments to the Act should pay adequate attention to the composition of the INEC Board which stipulates that: “The membership of the Board should consist of the following: A Chairman – who must be a person of unquestionable integrity; a Deputy Chairman – who must be a person of unquestionable integrity.

“However, the Chairman and Deputy must not be of the same gender; six persons of unquestionable integrity, two of whom must be women and one of whom must come from each of the six geo-political zones of the Federation; one nominee of Civil Society Organizations working in the area of elections and accredited by the proposed Political Parties Registration and Regulatory Commission”, adding that all such positions must be advertised by the National Judicial Council, spelling out requisite qualifications.

 

At the state level, the Report further recommended that the State Independent Electoral Commission,SIECs, should be re-organized and incorporated within the structure of the INEC to form a single EMB for the country while the state-level Secretariat of INEC should therefore consist of 37 Directors of Elections, one for each State and the FCT, appointed by INEC, trained and posted to states.

 

Apparently, to guarantee the security of tenure of INEC Chairman and members, it further proffers that, “The Chairman and members of the Board of INEC may only be removed by the Senate on the recommendation of the National Judicial Commission (NJC) by a two-thirds majority of the Senate which shall include at least 10 members of the minority parties in the Senate”. That Section 155 of the 1999 Constitution should also be amended to provide that the tenure of office of the Chairman and members of the Board of INEC shall be five years from the date of appointment, renewable only once while the process of renewal of the appointment of members of the Board of INEC shall be by the Senate on the recommendation of the NJC.

 

Consequently, based on Ari’s recent shameful conduct in the Adamawa governorship contest, it has become imperative that prospective officials of INEC particularly RECs and other national commissioners are made to undergo thorough screening to ensure that they are non-partisan, not affiliated with interested parties and possess requisite credentials and capacity to supervise future elections in the country. This is not negotiable for the EMB to deliver free, fair, peaceful and credible polls that Nigerians will be proud of.

 

 

For a better society

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