Conduct of elections at risk as INEC lacks RECs in 33 states

There are very serious concerns that Nigeria’s electoral processes may face jeopardy if the Federal Government continues to drag its feet over the appointment of Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECS) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Ripples Nigeria gathered Thursday that 5 more states will be left without Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) as the tenure of some of the incumbents will end this weekend.

Speaking Thursday in Abuja at a media briefing, a National Commissioner of INEC, Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, gave the names of those leaving the services of INEC on March 4 to include: Prof. Jacob Jatau (Federal Capital Territory), Mr Segun Agbaje (Ondo), Barrister Austin Okojie (Bayelsa), Mr Nasir Ayilara (Niger) and Baba Abba Yusuf (Adamawa).

“By March 4, five more Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) will complete their tenure. This is in addition to the 28 RECs who had earlier completed their tenure.

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“We thank these gentlemen for their contributions to the work of the commission over the last five years and wish them well in their future endeavours,” she said.

The following states are reportedly without RECs: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

Despite experimenting with democracy in the last 17 years, huge question marks remain over the conduct of elections into various political offices. Sitting administrations have often been accused of taking advantage of their control of state machineries to overwhelm the opposition.

 

 

 

 

 

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