INEC’s plan to organise polls for IDPs outside Nigeria a recipe for mass rigging —CUPP

The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has kicked against plans by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise elections for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) in neighbouring countries.

INEC chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, had at a Stakeholders’ Validation Conference for the IDPs voting jointly held in Abuja and organised by the commission and the International Foundation for Electoral Support on Wednesday, said that it will ensure IDPs in Chad and Niger vote in 2019 election.

But CUPP, in a statement by its 2nd national spokesperson, Comrade Mark Adebayo, faulted the position of INEC. It said the move is one of the plots by the electoral body to compromise the coming elections.

The statement made available to Ripples Nigeria Thursday morning read: “The CUPP receives with serious doubts and suspicions the real intentions of the INEC in its plans to conduct the 2019 elections in two neighboring countries – Chad and Niger ostensibly to allow the IDPs in those countries to vote in the 2019 general elections as announced by the INEC

“Considering the antecedents of the commission in the recent past vis-a-vis the notoriously rigged governorship elections in both Ekiti and Osun states in favour of the ruling party, the APC, the coalition finds it extremely difficult to trust the altruism of the INEC in the execution of this project. A few questions need be answered by the commission:

1. When and how were those IDPs registered to vote in the 2019 general elections?

2. Where were they registered – within Nigeria or outside Nigeria?

3. Does INEC have a reliable and verifiable data of all Nigerian registered voters who are now IDPs? If so, how many are they, from what constituencies, states, local governments and Wards?

4. Under what provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or the Electoral Act as amended does INEC derive the power to conduct elections in other African countries?

5. If security can be provided for the IDPs to vote in Chad and Niger, why not in Nigeria?

6. Is it only in those two countries that Nigeria has Nigerian IDPs? What of Cameroon and Burkina Faso?

7. What logistics strengths does INEC possess to conduct elections in those highly volatile countries with their own challenges of insecurity and insurgency?

“We can go on and on.

“The CUPP wishes to align itself with the position and observations of Hon. Adamu Kamale representing Michika/Magdali Federal Constituency of Adamawa state that 97% of IDPs in the state have returned to the state making it absolutely unnecessary to conduct any polls outside Nigeria.

“It is noteworthy that in previous elections, there have often been allegations of foreigners from Nigeria’s neighboring countries infiltrating the country during elections, voting and disappearing back to their countries.

“Therefore, in a situation whereby INEC now takes the election to their countries, how can voting by illegal, non-Nigerian voters be curbed knowing full well that INEC struggles even within Nigeria to cope with challenges of unregistered and under-aged voters especially considering the recent revelations that about thirteen million people voted in 2015 through incident Forms?

“This is totally unacceptable to the CUPP for the 2019 general elections and we shall not take it lightly.

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“We have reasonable grounds to doubt the sincerity and altruism of INEC in this venture. We demand a totally transparent electioneering process for the 2019. The CUPP and its candidate, His Excellency Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, will resist any attempt to rig the 2019 general elections.

“We call on INEC to be above board by being seen to be an impartial Election Management Body fair to all participating Parties in the 2019 general elections.

“We remind INEC that Nigeria is currently the cynosure of the international community with regard to the 2019 general elections and should therefore be seen to be like Caesar’s wife without blemish.

“We demand an emergency INEC-political Parties and presidential candidates meeting to resolve this knotty issue and decide what is best for the country and acceptable to critical stakeholders”.

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a member of CUPP, had consistently called for the resignation of the INEC chairman on the argument that he cannot be trusted to deliver a free and fair elections in 2019.

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