Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has assured Nigerians that the Commissions independence has not and will not be compromised by any external forces under any circumstance.
He said: “There is no influence on INEC, and there will never be any influence on INEC. The best marker for INEC is the elections that we have conducted and the outcome of those elections”.
The INEC Chairman gave the assurance today, while responding to questions from members of the INEC Press Corps during the opening ceremony of a two-two day Capacity Development Workshop at Rockview Hotel Royale, Abuja.
“I have never been approached by anybody to do anything in any way other than what is appropriate. I am not under any external pressure, neither are the members of the Commission,” he declared.
The INEC Chairman expressed delight that so far, the current Commission had conducted 163 elections and only one had been nullified by the courts, an indication that elections were getting better.
Addressing the issues of hate speeches and financial inducement of voters by politicians, Professor Yakubu, decried the challenges faced by the Commission in ensuring violators were adequately prosecuted under the law. Said he: “There are provisions under the Electoral Act for dealing with these kinds of violations, but we have been saying that INEC has been saddled with the responsibility for which it neither has the capacity nor the training to handle. We shall continue to do what we can to successfully prosecute”.
He reiterated the Commission’s call for the setting up of the Electoral Offenses Commission and Tribunal to which every electoral offender and violator would be subjected, including staff of the Commission. The INEC Chairman stressed that until this was done, the efforts of the Commission, giving the limitation and challenges it was faced with, may not be sufficient enough.
The INEC Chairman disclosed that the Commission, as part of its new initiative intended to make the process of voter registration, transfer, verification of registration status, and relocation easier by introducing online platforms for easy access to the electorate.
