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INEC Faces 1,069 Election Lawsuits, *109 new political parties apply for registration

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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is facing 1069 election law suits, Daily Asset has learnt.

This is as 109 political associations have applied for registration as political parties with INEC.

 INEC National Commissioner, Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr.

Festus Okoye  who spoke at an electoral reform round-table organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room and the Kofi Annan Foundation in Abuja on Thursday, revealed that currently, INEC is slammed with 1069 election lawsuits.

He said: “One of the biggest challenges facing the commission is the large number of pre-election matters that are still pending in various courts of law.

“As at today, the commission has a total of 809 pre-election matters while we have just 800 post-election matters, so the implication is that we have more pre-election matters than post-election.

“As at yesterday, the commission has withdrawn and reissued over 70 certificates of return that were previously issued to those who were elected into the various states and national assembly positions.

“There are more that we are still withdrawing and more that we are still re-issuing, some of these things arose from the not too transparent party primary elections that were conducted by the various political parties.

“It is really a source of concern that up till today, there are still a number of cases arising from pre-election matters in courts,” he said.

Okoye said one of the things the commission is looking at is whether the fourth alteration to the Constitution of Nigeria would properly address the issue of pre-election matters.

He said this is because the fourth alteration, gave the court of first instance a total of 180 days within which to determine cases and issues arising from pre-election matters.

“But 180 days from the period of the conduct of party primary elections and the end of substitution period dovetailed into the conduct of elections and even beyond.

“This more or less distorts what the commission’s activities and also puts it on edge in terms of knowing which political parties would be on the ballot and which would not,” he said.

He said the commission is looking at a situation where it could shorten the regime of the determination of pre-election matters to make it possible for it to have some level of sanity before going into any major election.

On new political parties, he said the number of political associations waiting to be registered are more than the existing ones adding that if they are registered Nigeria would have over 200 parties in 2023 elections.

Okoye said that the issue of the number of political parties is a challenge because the ballot papers are getting longer and the result sheets are getting bigger and creating a big challenge for the voters.

He said: “So I think we need to have a national conversation to see whether we really need the number of political parties in existence in the country or not.

Meanwhile, Nigeria used about two million tonnes of paper to conduct the 2019 General Elections, an official of INEC has said.

“For the first time, we used close to two million tonnes of paper for the conduct of elections, that is paper that will fill about 60 and 70 aircrafts, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, INEC National Commissioner in charge of South West, said on Tuesday.

Soyebi, also the Chairman, Board of the Electoral Institute, INEC, raised the concern in Lagos at the INEC 2019 State Level Post Election Review Retreat.

The meeting had in attendance INEC management staff including heads of departments, electoral officers and their assistants and some collation officers in the state at the 2019 elections.

Soyebi said elections in the country had been too expensive due to mistrust among the stakeholders.

“We must look for a way to perfect the system. The build up to the election was very rancorous,’’ he said.

According to him, the number of woods cut to produce huge paper used for ballots, perfecting security features to currency standard, logistics and others, call for concern.

“Most of the things we do here are due to lack of trust. When we print out ballot paper, we print it up to currency quality with a lot of security features.

“We transport them as if we are transporting money with fully armed security apparatus, keep in central bank as if they are currency; all these are prices of mistrust among ourselves.

” This mistrust is costing the country very hugely. All these we must address as a nation; we cannot continue this wasteful expense because we don’t trust ourselves.

”It is just appropriate for us to take stock after a major exercise like this. In the history of elections in Nigeria, this is the first time we will be confronted with huge logistics problems,” he said.

Soyebi , who also frowned at huge number of petitions and litigation arising from party primaries and general elections, said that the country had a long way to go.

He said that full electronic voting would tackle most of Nigeria’s electoral challenges.

“Time waits for nobody; we need a dynamic electoral system. The dynamics of politics and elections keep changing in Nigeria every time.

“We have been clamouring for what is called full electronic voting. By now, our register is electronic; accreditation by the smart card readers is electronic.

“Honestly, in my opinion, if we can have electronic balloting, it will help the system, it will rest a lot of things,’’ he added.

He said in 2015, the total number of registered voters was about 70 million, and in 2019, about 84 million.

“If we project into 2023, we should expect about 100 million registered voters.”

Soyebi congratulated INEC staff for their performances in the 2019 elections in spite of challenges.

He said that the commission had started making preparation for 2023 general elections, adding that the first ballot would be cast in 2023, exactly 1, 332 days away.

“What we are here to do is to find out things that went right and look at those things that went wrong and find ways of correcting them.

“This review is going to translate into relationship with other stakeholders to find out what went right and what went wrong.

Mr Sam Olumekun, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in Lagos State, said at the event that there was the need for stakeholders to consider addressing voter apathy before 2023 elections.

Olumekun said that the meeting was aimed at conducting a postmortem of the 2019 elections.

He said that the objective was to review operational framework and provide a platform for knowledge sharing.

According to him, there are reports and comments on the conduct and outcomes of the elections, including those abusing INEC and those supporting it.

He said: “We need to look at all these reports and, in good conscience, comment on these reports. There have been massive allegations of inducement of voters and vote-buying.

“In my humble opinion, this is the effect of processes in the system, but must we not ask the question: If there is an effect, what is the cause?

“Another important issue is voter apathy. We have close to 6.6 million registered voters in Lagos.

“In each of those elections, we recorded barely one million people turning out to vote.

“This is a very important issue that we must look into. How can we mitigate this development?”

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Senate Investigates $18.5bn Abuja Centenary City Project

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By Eze Okechukwu, Abuja

Senate yesterday set up a seven-member ad-hoc committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the lack of completion of the $18.5billion Abuja Centenary Economic City project, a decade after commencement.The Upper Chamber tasked the committee to review the original Public Private Partnership agreement and recommend amendments if necessary to facilitate the smooth and expeditious completion of the project.

The Senate also urged the Federal Government to prioritise the revival of the Centenary City project by providing appropriate support, resolving regulatory issues and addressing any other impediments, given its beneficial potential to the economy and people of Nigeria after 10 years of stalled progress.
The resolutions of the senate followed its consideration of a motion titled: “Urgent need to revive and complete the stalled Centenary City Project, to realise its economic and development potential” during plenary yesterday.The motion was sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Ashiru Yisa (APC – Kwara South).Senator Yisa in his lead debate urged colleagues to note that the Abuja Centenary Economic City project commenced in 2014 through a public private partnership to develop a modern city in the mood of Dubai, to commemorate 100 years of Nigeria’s amalgamation celebration.The Abuja Centenary Economic City Project was to be built according to the model and standard of global smart cities like Dubai, Monaco and Singapore.President Goodluck Jonathan laid foundation for the project on February 27, 2014 with a funfare.After Jonathan was defeated in the 2015 general elections, the succeeding Muhammadu Buhari administration put a halt to the project.The project driven by private investors was launched to mark the 100th anniversary of Nigeria costing $18b with 10–15 years completion period.

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CBN Gives POS Operators July 7 Deadline to Register with CAC

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By Tony Obiechina, Abuja

The Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a July 7, 2024 deadline for Point of Sales (PoS) operators to complete registration with the Corporate Affairs Corporation (CAC).This was revealed during a meeting between Fintechs and the Registrar-General/Chief Executive Officer (CAC) Hussaini Magaji (SAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event, the CAC boss said the two-month timeline to register their agents, merchants, and individuals with the commission, was “in line with legal requirements and the directives of the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
“The measure aims at safeguarding the businesses of Fintech’s customers and strengthening the economy,” a statement titled ‘CAC, PoS Operators Agree to Two-Month Deadline to Register Their Agents and Merchants to Strengthen the Fintech Industry”, the CAC added.
He stressed that the action was equally backed by Section 863, Subsection 1 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA 2020, and the 2013 CBN guidelines on agent banking.Magaji explained that the timeline for the registration which will expire on July 7, 2024, was not targeted at any groups or individuals but aimed at protecting businesses.Several speakers from the Fintech industry pledged to collaborate with the commission to ensure hitch-free implementation of the directive.Some of them, however, stressed the need for adequate and collective sensitisation, to ensure that the exercise achieved the desired results.The Special Adviser to the President on ICT Development and Innovation, Tokoni Peter, in his remarks, pledged to ensure smooth facilitation of the process in line with the Renewed Hope Initiative of the present administrationThe representatives of Opay, Momba, Palmpay Ltd, Pay Stack, Fair Money MFB, Monie Point, and Teasy Pay present at the event, later signed up for a document to support the project.

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CBN Exempts Salaries, Loans, Pensions, Donations from Cyber Security Levy

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By Tony Obiechina, Abuja

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has exempted 16 items from the 0.5 per cent Cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions.CBN had directed banks to begin charging 0.5% cybersecurity levy on transactions as part of efforts to contain the rising cybercrime threats in the financial system.

According to the Apex Bank, deducted funds will be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund (NCF), which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
A circular released by the CBN on Monday directed all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks to comply with the directive.The circular revealed that it was a follow-up on an earlier letter dated June 25, 2018 (Ref: BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/05/008) and October 5, 2018 (Ref: BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/11/023), in compliance with the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.
) Act 2015.Following the enactment of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024 and under the provision of Section 44 (2)(a) of the Act, a levy of 0.5 per cent (0.005) equivalent to half per cent of all electronic transactions value by the business specified in the Second Schedule of the Act is to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund, which the Office of the National Security Adviser shall administer.The exemptions included loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer, intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank, and Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) instructions to their correspondent banks.The exemption also applies to interbank placements, banks’ transfers to CBN and vice versa, inter-branch transfers within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, and Letters of Credit (LCs).Others include banks’ recapitalisation-related funding only bulk funds movement from collection accounts; savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments such as treasury bills, bonds; and commercial papers; government social welfare programmes transactions, e.g. pension payments; non-profit and charitable transactions including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities; educational institutions transactions, including tuition payments and other transaction involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions.Transactions involving the bank’s internal accounts, such as suspense accounts, clearing accounts, profit and loss accounts, inter-branch accounts, reserve accounts, nostro and vostro accounts, and escrow accounts, are also exempt from the levy.The central bank warned that Section 44 (8) of the Act prescribes that failure to remit the levy constitutes an offence punishable on conviction by a fine of not less than two percent of the defaulting business’s annual turnover, among other things.

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