POLITICS
Yiaga Africa Seeks Establishment of Electoral Offences Commission
Yiaga Africa has called on the National Assembly to accelerate the process of electoral reform, especially the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission to promptly and diligently prosecute electoral offenders.
The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Mr Samson Itodo, made the call in the final report on the Bayelsa ,Imo and Kogi in Abuja.
Itodo said the process should include fundamentally reforming the election management body ,the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) INEC, and the attitude of politicians to elections.
He said that Yiaga Africa also called on INEC to urgently review and conduct a comprehensive audit of the Imo governorship election results to inspire confidence in the process and its outcome.
He said that INEC should thoroughly investigate all the allegations of malpractices and misapplication of election laws and guidelines and remediate all the flaws including prosecuting its staff for complicity.
“Increasingly, more voters are tactically disenfranchised for conduct that is not within their control.
“INEC should review its policy to ensure that eligible voters across all polling units are given an equal opportunity to vote.
“This includes policy reviews that ensure that voters in polling units where elections are suspended or cancelled for electoral malpractice issues or logistical challenges are given an opportunity to vote,” he said.
Itodo said that Yiaga Africa deployed observers to monitor the Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi elections and also deployed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the Imo and Kogi State elections.
He noted that though Yiaga Africa observed a marked improvement in the management of election logistics across the three states, it however noticed some irregularities.
He added that the elections in Kogi and Imo reaffirmed the lack of commitment to democratic principles and credible elections on the part of electoral stakeholders.
According to him, the zero-sum attitude to electoral politics undermines electoral integrity and citizens’ right to elect leaders.
“These off-cycle elections were to test the commitment of key democratic institutions such as INEC, security agencies and the executive to restore public confidence in the electoral process.
“Yiaga Africa is concerned about the continuous decline in the quality of our elections and the penchant to lower the integrity standards of our elections irrespective of reforms introduced by INEC and progress made in reforming our election legal framework.
“The Nov. 11 elections were another missed opportunity to rebuild trust and confidence in the electoral process.
“The elections question the commitment of democratic institutions such as INEC, political parties and other state institutions to electoral integrity and credible elections.”
Itodo however commended INEC for its prompt response to the report of cases of pre-filled results sheets (EC8A) in Kogi and expressed hopes that it would fulfil its commitment to ensuring the culprits faced the full wrath of the law.
He further said that Yiaga Africa also observed a reduction in cases of election day-related violence and commended the efforts of the Police and other security agencies.
He expressed hope that all reports of election offences, compromise and unprofessional conduct of some police officers would duly be investigated and culprits properly punished.
He noted that Yiaga Africa’s observation data suggested that elections did not hold in some designated polling units and this questioned the transparency of the process adding that it violated the rights of the voters in the affected polling units.
According to him, as a result of missing data from the PRVT sample coupled with high number of critical incidents recorded in Imo, Yiaga Africa was not in a position to verify the credibility and outcome of the election as earlier promised.
“However INEC official results for Kogi governorship election was consistent with Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimate as it falls within the WTV estimated range.
The executive director said that had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA, or state collation centres, they would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges.
“Kogi Result Verification based on reports from 278 of 286 (97.2%) sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows that the All Progressives Congress (APC) should receive between 47.0 per cent and 59.0 per cent of the vote.
“The Social Democratic Party (SDP) should receive between 31 per cent and 42.4 per cent of the vote and Peoples Democratic Party should receive between 4.8 per cent and 7.4 per cent while no other political party should receive more than 1.2 per cent of the vote.” (NAN)
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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