Mix feelings greet Feb 3, bye-elections as some electorate, political parties vow to boycott polls

By Ignatius Okorocha

As Nigerians go to the polls on Saturday, February 3, 2024, to cast their votes for candidates of their choice in the 39 out of the 1,491 federal and state constituencies where elections were held nationwide at the February 2023 general election, there are indications that some electorate will in anger boycott the election in protest for the outcome of the last general election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the judgement of the Appellate courts, the bye-elections may witness low turnout of the electorate.

Be that as it may, the saying that time heals the wound may be the case in this circumstance. That notwithstanding, it is believed that the outcome of judgements from the Election Tribunals, Appeal courts and even Supreme Court a couple of months ago on the 2023 general election, some Nigerians who feel that they have a second chance to decide who represents them at the states and National Assembly, will come out on Saturday to cast their votes for their preferred candidates.

Investigation by Daily Champion Newspapers has shown that based on some unresolved issues with some state’s Independent National Electoral Commission on the exemption of some political parties from the Saturday bye-elections, the exercise may witness a low turnout of voters at the polls.

Recall that ahead of the Saturday polls, NEC had at the January 23rd meeting with the inter-Agency consultative committee on security (ICCESS), assured Nigerians that through its meeting with the inter-Agency, the safety of its staff and materials for the conduct of the Saturday bye-elections would be guaranteed for the purpose of free and fair elections at the designated polling stations across the country.

Shedding light on the conduct of the Saturday bye-election, INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu explained, “There are two categories of elections to be conducted on February 3, 2024 arising from the death or resignation of members of National and state legislative houses affecting two Senatorial districts and four Federal and state Assembly Constituencies.

Adding he said, “The second category is the re-run elections by order of Election Petition Appeal Tribunals. In my remarks at the Commission’s extraordinary meeting with leaders of political parties last month, I reported that the elections affected 35 National and State Constituencies. Since then, four additional orders of the Court of Appeal have been served on the Commission in respect of Yabo/Shagari Federal Constituency of Sokoto State, Madara/Chinade State Constituency of Bauchi State as well as Kudan and Kauru/Chawai State Constituencies of Kaduna State.

“This brings the total number of affected constituencies to 39 which translates to 2.6% of the 1,491 Constituencies for which elections were conducted nationwide in the 2023 General Election.

“The nine bye-elections are fresh elections covering the entire constituencies. However, except three Constituencies (Plateau North Senatorial District and Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency in Plateau State and Kachia/Kagarko Federal Constituency in Kaduna State), the re-run elections are to be held in a few Polling Units.

“In some cases, only one Polling Unit is affected in an entire Federal or State Constituency.”

INEC boss cautioned members of the inter-Agency committee to ensure security at the conduct of the elections.

 “Your task as members of ICCES is to ensure security for the elections. For this reason, the Commission has already provided to the Nigeria Police Force, as the lead agency in election security, the full information of the locations where the elections will be held are broken down by States, Local Government Areas, Registration Areas/Wards and Polling Units.

 “We have similarly provided the number of registered voters and Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) collected in each Polling Unit. The same information will be shared at this meeting with other members of ICCES.

“The updated information will also be uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms for public information immediately after this meeting.

“As you are all aware, the election is a multi-stakeholder responsibility. INEC has a role to play. So are you too and other stakeholders,’ he noted.

Continuing Yakubu said, “As security agencies, it is your responsibility to secure the environment to enable us to deploy personnel and materials, the protection of observers, the media as well as the polling and collation agents representing the political parties and candidates. Without a secure and peaceful environment, the conduct of credible elections is imperilled.

“From experience, the conduct of isolated elections such as bye-elections and re-run elections can be very challenging.

“We must pay attention to the potential for disruptive behaviour by some candidates and their supporters. A re-run election conducted in one Polling Unit or a handful of Polling Units can be severely disrupted by acts of thuggery knowing fully well that these few locations will determine the outcome of the election.

” Arising from the reports we received from the States, concerns have been raised about the impact of the prevailing insecurity in some States on the conduct of the elections, made worse by incendiary statements by some political actors. We will present such concerns and reports at this meeting for appropriate security response.”

Meanwhile, barely 48 hours to the conduct of Plateau North senatorial district and Bassa-Jos North Federal Constituency rerun elections slated for Saturday 3rd February 2024, tension and apprehension brewed as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) excluded Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from participation.

The INEC commissioner in charge of North Central, Muhammad Haruna, made this known to newsmen on Thursday after receiving the sensitive materials for the elections from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, zonal branch Jos.

He said the security will do all that is possible to ensure there is peace, and the police and other security agencies will do all that is possible to ensure that materials are secured from being tampered with and vandalised.

“We had a meeting with political parties right before now and told them in return disqualified candidate and political party cannot participate, this is an established law, the Supreme Court has ruled about it in Labour versus INEC several years ago and PDP was a beneficiary of this several years ago.

“INEC is a law-abiding institution, we never flout the law. We call a meeting of all political parties, if PDP went to court and the federal high court declined jurisdiction what that simply means is that the ruling by the Court of Appeal subsists and we have to obey the court, our hands are tight by the court in this regard. What the court said is what we are going to do whether it is right or wrong unless it is set aside.

Daily Champion reports that the Appeal Court in Abuja under Honourable Justice Williams-Dawodu panel sometimes on 22 October 2023, nullified the elections of former Senate minority leader, Simon Mwadkwon and member representing Jos North-Bassa Federal Constituency, Musa Agah on the ground that PDP doesn’t have a valid primary election in Plateau state.

The Appellate Court also directed INEC to conduct rerun elections within 90 days and all political parties should participate.

However, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) Plateau state has vowed that no political party will participate in the rerun elections scheduled for 3rd February 2024 except all parties were included on the ballot.

 Abubakar Dogara, IPAC chairman of Plateau State who spoke with newsmen after inspection of sensitive election materials revealed they held a meeting with INEC on the 9th of January 2024, in which INEC promised to serve with a list of parties that would participate in the elections but failed to do so.

According to him, “The position of the IPAC is that it is either PDP participate in the election or all parties will not take part because the Appeal Court said all political parties should participate in the election.

“We noticed that one of us is not on the ballot papers and therefore we sat down and agreed that an injury to one is an injury to all therefore, if PDP is not participating no political party will participate.

“We were not informed that one of us would not be part of the election, we were told that the list of parties that will take part in the election would be forwarded to us within a week from the day we met with INEC on 9th January 2024.

“We prefer peace on the Plateau than election or anything, we know how fragile the issue of peace is on the Plateau, we are trying to avert anything that will take us to the doom days.”