The Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Osun State, Dr Mutiu Agboke, on Tuesday, warned political stakeholders to stop attacking INEC officials without committing infractions or breaking electoral laws.
This is as the State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, recommended that INEC conduct fresh registrations every five years to maintain an up-to-date and reliable voter register.
The resident Electoral commissioner who dropped the warning while speaking at the OSUN, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ),2024, press week held in Osogbo, maintained that the current trend of personal attacks on INEC officials by political stakeholders is counterproductive.
According to him, “In recent time, we discovered that political stakeholders have shifted their attention from the issues they are supposed to monitor, the target is now the officials of the commission and I felt there is no need for all this unless you see that clearly a particular official has committed an infraction, an infraction that the commission should rise up to.
“The political stakeholders should shift their attention from thinking that they can rubbish officials of the commission, perhaps thinking that by doing that, they will have their way is not the way it should be.
“When you focus on that, you miss out monitoring the activities, you miss out the monitoring those officials to be able to know whether they are doing the right thing or not.
“All of us should continue to analyze various security threats to our elections, even before the election at all. And our engagement should continue. None of the security agency should back out.
“We should continue to work together. We should continue to continue to liaise together and INEC will always open the door for them to achieve this.”
While frowning at the growing trust deficit in Nigeria’s electoral process, Agboke wondered why, these stakeholders have shifted their attention from monitoring the electoral process to targeting INEC officials, hoping to influence the outcome of elections.
“This approach is misguided and the stakeholders should focus on monitoring the commission’s activities, modalities, and officials conduct instead”.
“They should analyze and address security threats to elections before and during the electoral process and, INEC will continue to work with security agencies to ensure credible elections.”
In his own submission at the event, the State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi recommended that INEC conduct fresh registrations every five years to maintain an up-to-date and reliable voters’ register.
Alimi argued that this is important because,” I’m stating it clearly and authoritatively today that the register we have today is not the true reflection of the voters’ register. The only solution I will recommend for INEC is that every five years let us register afresh then we will know the true actual voters’ register in a particular unit, ward, local government and state levels.”
He added that INEC only adds new names every four years, resulting in a register cluttered with deceased individuals.
In his own remark, an outstanding broadcast journalist and Chief Executive officer of a popular private radio station in the state, Prince Femi Adefila, kicked against vote buying during elections and agitated for better scrutiny of the process of choosing leaders in the country.
According to Adefila, vote buying remains a persistent issue in the country’s electoral process, undermining the integrity of democracy.
Earlier, the Osun State NUJ Chairman, Comrade Wasiu Ajadosu, affirmed that, it is the responsibility of all stakeholders in the country to play their roles to ensure that “the election is peaceful, fair and credible in any given society”.
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