Pressure On INEC To Admit Observers In Situation Room
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant international and local observers access to its situation room during the elections.
It said the call became imperative because of President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and alleged manipulations during the Osun State gubernatorial poll.
“INEC said it has spent money to acquire software and improve on the card readers. If the optimised card readers have the facility to transmit results from the polling units, then the situation room should be equally accessible to poll observers, to ensure nobody uses information to subvert the process.”
While interacting with journalists in Lagos, Sunday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan said pointers suggest the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Buhari were not interested in free and fair elections. It was therefore not enough for INEC to say it would not use incident forms during the exercise.
The national chairman of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ralph Nwosu, backed the PDP’s call. He said via telephone: “The situation room should not just be only for INEC officials. All the parties must be involved, so that as they are counting, we are getting the information. That is the way it is supposed to be. This call is important because nobody trusts INEC anymore. They are biased; they have shown bias in all the elections we have had. The result that was supposed to be declared, they called it inconclusive.”
Also, rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria Olisa Agbakoba described the idea as “good”, saying anything that would make the election transparent would be welcome.
“I think INEC should support it because it will make them look more credible. The commission is already under suspicion. People are saying they are pro-government. Anything that INEC can do that would make people say it is truly independent and neutral will only add to its credibility.
“This would make the result they will declare believable. And the only way the result can be believable is if INEC brings in people who are neutral and have no interest in whether it is Atiku or Buhari or any other person. I will urge INEC to endorse any process that will make their work more credible to Nigerians and international communities,” he said.
Asked what the position of the commission was on the demand, INEC’s spokesman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, replied: “I have no comment.”
