Anastasia Okechukwu
Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has vowed to discipline any of its staff who may have acted improperly during the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly Elections, including ad-hoc or collation officials.
The INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made this announcement at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Saturday in Abuja.
He said; “As we approach the Governorship and State Assembly elections, we must work harder to overcome the challenges experienced in the last election.
Nothing else will be acceptable to Nigerians.
“All staff found to be negligent, whether they are regular or ad hoc officials, including Collation and Returning Officers, must not be involved in forthcoming elections. RECs must also immediately initiate disciplinary action where prima facie evidence of wrongdoing has been established”.
He also told the RECs that Election Day logistics must be finalized days before the election and handled by the Electoral Officers EOs at Local Government level. “This has been our standard practice. Centralizing the process as was done in some States resulted in delayed deployment of personnel and materials and late commencement of polls. “RECs will be held responsible for any tardy arrangement or the failure to deploy electric power generators to collation centres or polling units where such facilities are needed. The Commission has enough facilities in all the States of the Federation. Failure to deploy them is simply inexcusable”, he declared.
Yakubu also stated that refresher training must be conducted for ad hoc staff who participated in the last election, adding that where they are replaced for good reason, they must be properly trained so that processes are not delayed or compromised at any stage.
He said arising from last week’s election, the Commission has received reports from its State offices well as complaints and petitions from political parties and candidates.
According to him, where infractions of any kind are proven, there will be redress, adding that any action taken by the Commission is without prejudice to the rights of parties and candidates to seek further remedy as provided by law.
On Election Day technology, Yakubu added that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS will once again be deployed for voter accreditation and result management.
He said the deployment of BVAS has gone a long way to sanitise voter accreditation as can be seen from the result of recent elections.