As 2019 presidential election approaches, concerns are growing among stakeholders that the exercise may not be violence-free, credible, free and fair.
Heightening the fear, Political parties question the manner in which the ad-hoc staff of the commission were recruited, which according to them, was unsatisfactory.
According to MrGodson Okoye, who doubles as National Chairman of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Coalition for Change, they are not comfortable that the criteria for employing the ad-hoc staff was shrouded in secrecy, adding that INEC had started training the ad-hoc staff based on wrong guidelines.
Okoye questioned where the ad-hoc staff were picked from, decrying that the election umpire did not carry political parties along regarding the numbers of the ad-hoc staff that were employed, warning that they, as primary stakeholders, should also be considered before some decisions will be taken.
In the same vein, Mr Jeff Ojirika, Deputy National Chairman Inter Party Advisory Council alleged that many of those who were recruited by INEC were not National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) members, although INEC had dismissed the allegation as fake news. Ojirika added that the said recruitment of the ad-hoc staff at a time generated hot argument within the commission itself, because the electoral umpire had centralised the recruitment of the ad-hoc staff.
Ojirika observed that the recruitment could have been transparent and that each ad-hoc member should have been made to swear to an oath. He alleged that many of the ad-hoc staff are partisan and sympathetic to some political parties, especially that some of the Vice Chancellors, who will be used as returning officers, are semi political, while some other INEC officials are appointees of the ruling government.
Speaking further Ojirika expressed fear that based on the electoral guidelines released by INEC, the election may not be free and fair. It will be recalled that as part of the electoral guidelines, INEC had favoured continuous accreditation of voters which had been under criticisms because political parties feared that it may allowed rigging. But INEC had maintained that it had successfully made use of the continuous accreditation of voters during the off season elections in Ekiti, Ondo and Osun.
Expressing his fear, Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while speaking during the party’s campaign at Birnin Kebbi, has also raised the concern that INEC should desist from acts tantamount to rigging even before the votes are caste.
He said the creation of central collation centre by Prof Mahmud Yakubu, INEC chairman, was to allegedly help the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) in manipulating the polls. He said names of APC sympathizers were being compiled secretly and that INEC leadership had succumbed to pressure from APC.
However, pockets of violence have rocked campaigns and political rallies in some states of the federation. Hoodlums and gunmen, on January 17, allegedly disrupted APC ward campaign in Ikenne, Ogun State, while thugs attacked the campaign office of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of PDP in Ondo and Ekiti states recently, just as Abia INEC office was razed as numbers of permanent voters cards were destroyed.
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