The National Vice Chairman, North-West, of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has said that the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) must, as a matter of urgency, initiate the
process of internal review of how the 2023 elections were managed.
Lukman made the call in a media interaction with journalists
on Friday in Abuja.
The party chieftain also questioned the ethical conduct of
the staff of INEC, especially the Returning Officers during the just concluded
elections.
He added that while there were gaps and problems witnessed
during the 2023 elections, he maintained that it was an improvement in past
elections conducted in the country.
His words: “I want you this opportunity to call on INEC, we
must as a matter of urgency initiate the process of internal review of how the
2023 elections was managed. And as part of that review, they must address
issues of ethical conduct of their own staff, including the returning officers.
“I am a critic of the choice of using academic staff as
Returning Officers. I don’t believe being an academician is equivalent to
competence in managing public service, such as a Returning Officer in an
election. There are many
cases of Returning Officers compromising themselves to
politicians.”
Lukman also stressed the need for the electoral body to
attend to the problems recorded during the 2023 elections as quickly as
possible.
“Sincerely speaking, we concentrate so much on elections.
The process is far more important than the election. The process for the 2027
election should start now and I believe their (INEC) capacity to be honest in
auditing what transpired would be far more important in determining whether
we’re going to record improvement in 2027 or not,” he said.
The APC chieftain stated categorically that the last
election was not one of those elections, saying while some progress had been
made in the electoral management system, the gaps that were witnessed had to do
with the conduct of the politicians.
He stated: “We (politicians) go into elections with the
mindset that we must win the election. And when we don’t win, everything is bad
about the election. I think the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation
System (BVAS) has helped a lot. There are problems here and there that have
been recorded which I am going to highlight some of them. But on the whole, we
must commend INEC.”
The APC National Working Committee (NWC) member alleged that
there were several cases where INEC Returning Officers were compromised by
politicians, hence, the reason why different standards were applied in
different states.
Lukman also said he would not be comfortable if the set of
staff that conducted Kebbi governorship election are allowed to conduct the
rerun election.
He added that there were cases that had been declared
inconclusive, which ordinarily if the same standard had been applied, results
would have been declared.
Lukman noted: “One of those cases is Kebbi state for
instance. Not because I’m APC and I think being APC, we have a right to
complain about that. There is also the case of Kano, which should be declared
(inconclusive), if the
standard of Kebbi had been applied to Kano. But these are
general issues which for me, I thought I should call on INEC to do an internal
audit of the management process of the last election and begin to fix things.
“That way, if it is possible, some of the infractions that
have happened could be corrected before the rerun election.”
He described the call for the sack of the INEC chairman as
unfortunate and misplaced.
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