INEC
Nigeria: 2015 elections recorded highest Infractions—INEC
For overlooking questionable roles in the conduct of Nigeria’s general elections in 2015, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has suspended 205 staff.
That was the highest number of staff involving in various electoral frauds in the history of Nigeria.
“The APDC recommended the interdiction of 205 staff found culpable in various roles they played arising from the 2015 general elections—this is the highest number of interdictions since the history of the commission”, the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said.
In that election, President Muhammadu Buhari beat then incumbent Goodluck Jonathan with about a two million votes margin, making history as the first opposition leader to beat the incumbent in Nigeria.
Vanguard newspaper reports that the Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in his keynote address at national colloquium organised by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group, ISDMG, yesterday, in Abuja.
Mahmood said the interdiction recommended by INEC’s Appointments, Promotion and Discipline Committee, APDC, was the highest so far.
The INEC said constructive criticisms from the public had helped the commission to get better in delivering its mandate in conducting credible elections. The INEC boss said the commission’s electoral officers were already in the field working towards the success of the 2019 elections.
He said: “We have to put the right people in place as electoral officers and assistant electoral officers for the 2019 general elections. “The credibility of an election depends on the credibility of the election manager; the credulity of the election manger depends on the credibility of the staff.”
“We have within the some of the most patriotic staff in the country; but anybody found wanting will be dealt with accordingly,” he said.
Yakubu the introduction of the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, had increased voter registration. The INEC boss listed the top states in CVR as Rivers, Anambra, Borno, Delta, Lagos, Cross-River, Osun, Enugu, Kano and Plateau.