The Independent National Electoral Commission has much to prove as it tries to surmount its controversies ahead of the forthcoming Edo and Ondo governorship polls, BAYO AKINLOYE and TOBI AWORINDE write
Currently, the Independent National Electoral Commission is, perhaps, going through its most trying time since its inception in 1998.
Dogged by criticisms of poorly conducted polls and alleged corruption, the commission has struggled in its bid to repeat the success of the 2015 general elections, which garnered local and international commendation.
For some time now, INEC has been battling with a raft of inconclusive elections. Rerun governorship elections held in Kogi and Bayelsa states on November 21 and December 5, 2015, respectively, were both inconclusive, after being marred by violence.
A former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Prof. Oyewo Oyelowo, in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, juxtaposed the recent performance of INEC with that of the commission under the immediate past INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
According to Oyelowo, the electorate has lost confidence in the ability of the current leadership of the commission to successfully conduct polls.
He said, “If you look at recent events, INEC has not successfully concluded any election since Jega. Is it Kogi you want to talk about? Is it Rivers? Everything has been shambolic. This particular tenure of INEC has been tagged ‘the inconclusive INEC.’ There is no doubt that there is a lack of confidence in INEC to successfully conclude an election.”
An Abuja-based lawyer and Chairman of the Egalitarian Mission Africa, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, however, put the blame on President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the current administration had not created an enabling environment for INEC to operate optimally.
Former Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega
Former Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega
Ajulo said, “Let’s start with former President Umaru Yar’Adua. Kudos to him for being the first elected Nigerian president to admit that the election that brought him into power was fraught with irregularities, and he promised to bring reforms to the country’s electoral system.
“Thereafter, he set up the Uwais panel. Eventually, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan implemented those reforms. Unfortunately, President Buhari hasn’t done anything to improve on the country’s electoral system.”
INEC has also faced criticisms over allegations of bribery by some key electoral officials in the 2015 elections.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in April, found over N675.1m in the bank accounts of different INEC officials in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Delta states.
According to the anti-graft agency, the money was received and shared by the officials during the last governorship elections.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the 2015 election in Rivers State, Mrs. Gesila Khan, and four other officials of INEC were arrested by the zonal office of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on April 14. Khan had reportedly been quizzed by the Department of State Services in July last year but was never charged.
Following the arrests, the residences of all the suspects were searched and incriminating documents were said to have been recovered by the commission.
Sources at the EFCC disclosed that Khan, who is now the REC in Cross River State, allegedly received N185.8m ahead of the 2015 elections.
According to the commission, overwhelming evidence was gathered showing that the REC received money through a special bank account.
President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari
The anti-graft agency also arrested one Edem Okon Essanga, a retired INEC official, along with his alleged accomplice, Immaculata Asuquo, who is the Head, Voter Education, INEC, Akwa Ibom State.
The EFCC source said, “Essanga received N241.1m during the general election. He admitted receiving the money and confirmed sharing it with different ad hoc workers during the election. His accomplice, Asuquo, has also been arrested.”
Other arrests made by the EFCC include one Fidelia Omoile, who was the INEC electoral officer in Isoko-South Local Government Area, Delta State, and one Oluchi Obi Brown, who was the INEC administrative secretary in the state.
Apart from tracing over N112m to Omoile, the commission recovered some sensitive electoral materials during a search of her apartments in Edo and Delta states.
“She received N112.4m during the 2015 general election. A search warrant was executed at her residences in Asaba and Benin. Sensitive materials used in the 2015 elections were recovered, including evidence of the suspicious bank transaction and land documents that will assist us in our investigations,” the source said.
On her part, Brown allegedly received over N111m and had over $75,000 stashed in an account in the United States.
“Oluchi received N111.5m during the general election. Investigations showed that she operates a foreign account with the Bank of America. As of February this year, the account balance was $75,857, (N24,274,240),” the source added.”
The EFCC, on April 28, promised to arrest more INEC officials and election monitors that received bribes out of N23bn allegedly disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The anti-graft agency had arrested the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, on April 25 on allegations of handling $115m for Diezani in the build-up to the presidential election.
Okonkwo was said to have helped in converting the money to N23bn, which was then allegedly shared to INEC officials and election monitors under the instruction of Diezani’s son, Ugonna, for the electoral chiefs to manipulate the poll results.
A source at the EFCC said, “Ugonna prepared a list of beneficiaries that would get the money and it was distributed about a day or two before the elections. We have started tracing those who collected money and our aim is to recover the funds.”
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, expressed support for the EFCC at a meeting with journalists in Lagos, appealing to the anti-graft agency to fish out bribe takers in the electoral commission.
Yakubu, according to a bulletin by the commission made available on May 10, said, “Whatever level of cooperation any of the agencies requires of the commission, we will give that level of cooperation because it is also in a bid to sanitise the system.”
It was further learnt that the bribery controversy indicated that the culpable INEC staff members might be suspended, pending the outcome of investigations into the allegations of their involvement in the matter.
A national commissioner of INEC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added, “It is the rule in the civil service that when an officer is being investigated for allegations based on criminality, such officer will be placed on indefinite suspension.
“That rule was used during the regime of the former Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega. That same rule will be used in this case, but we have to meet to determine those to be suspended.”
Oyelowo, speaking with SUNDAY PUNCH, noted that the INEC Chairman had demonstrated the need for a restructuring of INEC.
The legal practitioner noted that the current leadership of INEC had come to terms with the limitations of the agency, describing the INEC boss’ admission as an important first step in the right direction.
He said, “The first main point is to see the body language of INEC. You can see that INEC seems to be begging for reforms. It has been seeking for constitutional and legal reforms to be able to shed weight so that it can concentrate on the aspect of electoral process that it feels should be what the election monitoring body should be doing.
“I am sure the allegations of corruption are a product of investigation and at the end of the day, those who are culpable will be prosecuted. But it has, in a way, tainted the confidence of people even in the 2015 elections that such a horrendous amount of money was being shared to INEC officials.
“But what is of greater concern is the effect of that on INEC because one of the requisites for democratic governance and democratisation is to have an independent election management body. Once you don’t have that, you will erode the confidence of all the stakeholders in the system and it will weaken the whole governmental structure because questions will be raised as to whether or not the people coming through the system are truly representative.”
As analysts have observed, INEC has much to prove as it readies itself for subsequent elections.
With the May 12 release of INEC’s timetables and schedule of activities for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo, it is believed that the polls will serve as an integrity test for the commission.
The Edo State governorship election is scheduled to come up on September 10, whereas that of Ondo State will hold on November 26.
Oyelowo said, “The Ondo and Edo elections obviously will be a litmus test for their preparedness and even the ability of the current leadership of INEC to successfully conduct election. And if one can go by their immediate past records, I think there is a lot that must be done in terms of preparation, so that the whole system will not break down.
“If the system breaks down, it portends impacts for future elections and also the elections that will be coming up on 2019. I think it is in the best interest of the political class — the current government and even the opposition — to see to it that the problem of inconclusive elections is done away with and free and fair elections can be conducted.”
Ajulo, however, is not convinced that INEC can be vindicated.
The activist said, “Yar’Adua was pragmatic in addressing the issues bedevilling INEC back then. I will be sincere, I don’t think this present INEC can be trusted to conduct free, fair and credible elections.
“INEC, as we have it today, has shown it is incompetent to run successful elections. It leaves much to be desired as we expect it to conduct two major governorship elections in Ondo and Edo States.”
But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Yusuf Ali, argued that an organisation like INEC would not suffer any damage because of the allegations levelled against its officials.
“Integrity issue cannot come in at all, whether the accusation against those officials turn out to be true or not. Every patriotic Nigerian is concerned about the way the electoral body has conducted elections since the departure of Jega as INEC chairman.
“I am hoping and praying that the electoral umpire will get its act together. The way it has been conducting inconclusive elections is too recurrent as seen in Kogi and Rivers States.
“It is becoming a pattern which I think is not good for the polity. INEC should do all that is possible to ensure that elections in Edo and Ondo are conclusive because virtually all elections after April 2015 have been inconclusive.”
