INEC dragged to court 680 times — Chair
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said yesterday that the commission had been dragged to court 680 times in the aftermath of 2015 general elections.
Prof. Yakubu stated this in his address at a national colloquium organised by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) in Abuja.
He added the commission was building on the strategic plan of action that attracted accolades for the 2015 elections.
“Arising from the 2015 general elections, the commission was dragged to court 680 times. At the end of January this year, that’s from January 2016, we were dragged to court about 200 times, and the number is increasing. In fact, even last week, there was one,” he said.
Prof. Yakubu who said they were ready for 2019 elections, said INEC had interdicted 205 staff over various unwholesome roles in the 2015 general elections.
He, however, added that the development did not in any way that overshadow the achievements of the electoral empire which successfully conducted 179 off season elections so far. “Only five had been challenged in court which attested to the credibility of the elections,” he said.
According to him, constructive criticisms from the public had helped the commission to get better in delivering its mandate, adding that electoral officers were already in the field working towards the success of the 2019 elections.
“We have within the commission some of the most patriotic staff in the country; but anybody found wanting will be dealt with accordingly,” he said.
He said that the introduction of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) had increased voter registration, saying Rivers, Anambra, Borno, Delta, Lagos, Cross-River, Osun, Enugu, Kano and Plateau had recorded large turnout of people.
The Executive Director (ISDMG), Dr. Chima Amadi, gave a pass mark to INEC as the most responsive of all government agencies involved in the election value chain.
“The criticality of the 2019 elections lies within its potential to serve as a measure of the depth of our institutions especially those that will be directly involved in the elections,” he said.
“The security agencies continue to behave true to type and are even getting worse, while political gladiators horn their manipulative stock-intrade. However, we are resolved to take them to task with the same resilience that we used in getting INEC to act properly,” he said.