Femi Falana, SAN, a Human Rights lawyer.
Femi Falana, SAN, a Human Rights lawyer, has expressed concerns that the challenges INEC is currently grappling with in conducting trustworthy elections could be further exacerbated by the nomination of individuals with political party affiliations as Resident Electoral Officers. Falana made these remarks while discussing the recently confirmed INEC RECs, some of whom have faced allegations of partisan involvement, as approved by the Senate on Wednesday and Thursday.
“Successive regimes in Nigeria, Yar’Adua’s regime, Jonathan’s regime, and Buhari’s regime have all set up electoral reform committees or panels to make recommendations that will assist the government to have credible elections.
“In the case of President Tinubu as a leader of the CAN, he set up a committee for electoral reforms to campaign for the implementation of the recommendations of the Uwais Panel and one of them is that we must have independent umpires in every material particular.
“You can’t have a card-carrying member of a political party or a loyalist of a political party to be a Resident Electoral Commissioner or a national commissioner; you complicate the problem for INEC to have credible elections,” Falana said.
After President Tinubu appointed 10 new RECs for INEC, concerns were raised by Civil Society Organizations and some Nigerians regarding the political affiliations of some appointees. They urged the Senate not to confirm these nominees. However, the Senate went ahead and confirmed all the appointees as RECs.
Falana, who identified three of these appointees as members of the All Progressives Congress and one as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, criticized the Senate’s confirmation of these individuals. He highlighted that the PDP in Akwa Ibom State had taken the matter to court, challenging the appointment of Mr. Etekamba Umoren, a former Chief of Staff to Senator Godswill Akpabio, an APC leader in Akwa Ibom State, as the REC for the state.
The legal expert further suggested that the appointment of three other RECs should be legally contested, emphasizing that if the courts determine these appointments as unlawful, Senate confirmation cannot legitimize them.