The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday said some unnamed influential Nigerians were involved in double registration during the recent voter listing.
Jega, who also vowed that the commission would soon commence their prosecution, said these at the National Summit on Free and Fair Elections organised by The Nation newspapers in collaboration with INEC in Abuja. However, the INEC Chairman did not name the high profile registrants. But he revealed that the double registration of voters was recorded in all the 36 states of the federation, including Abuja, adding that the commission’s AFIS software helped to detect such cases.
“Many people did not believe us, some of the politicians in fact thought INEC had no capacity to check double registration. I must tell you that we even caught some high profile double registrants, and we will be able to start with them in the area of prosecution.
“We have done all the collation, we have done all (with) the software we were using. Many people who didn’t think we had the capacity, but like I said, we’ve got the best software for checking double registration.
“This software checks duplication of names, duplication of photographs and the duplication of fingerprints. So, it caught any of these or all of these where they occurred. Where you have double photographs and double fingerprints, then you know that that is a 100 per cent case of wilful double registration,” he said.
Jega, however, assured that cases of double registration were ‘statistically’ insignificant in relation to the 67.7 million registered voters. The INEC boss, who said the number was not up to one per cent of the number of registered voters, also noted that the commission was aware of similarities in the names of people in different parts of the country.
He stated that INEC was being cautious not to disenfranchise eligible voters. He also assured that unlike in the past, governors and ministers would not be allowed to move around with security aides during elections beyond the polling unit where they cast their vote.
On security, he said the commission had reached an agreement with all security agencies on the role to be assigned to each of them. The INEC boss also decried the growing number of court orders served on it by candidates.
He said, “There are, as I speak with you now, over 200 cases that we are confronted with. Over 70 of them were exparte orders given to us.
“Really, some of them defy logic or reason, but we have pleaded with the appropriate authorities. We all know (that), we have a history, we want to get it right and we are doing our best. But we know in 1993 how these kinds of judgments created problems and in fact obstructed the process. It is absolutely necessary that we begin to address some of these things.”
He enjoined government, political parties, politicians and other stakeholders to muster the political will to respect electoral laws. Jega also decried the ‘do-or-die’ mentality of some politicians, adding that a zero sum attitude to elections would not help in deepening democracy.
Jega recalled that in November 2010, he had written to President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the National Assembly on the need to adopt the recommendations of the Justice Mohammadu Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee, especially on the possibility of establishing an Election Offences Tribunal.
He added, “It is a very unfortunate mindset.
Politicians ought to have enlightened self-interest. The associated problem is impunity because they feel confident that they will get away with whatever they do.
“But for the first time, we are saying that if you violate the law, we will have the capacity to apprehend and prosecute you. It is very difficult for us as INEC, that as we are doing our best with the issues revolving around the management of elections, to also be dealing with issues of offences and their prosecution.
“We are doing our best now. Ultimately, I believe that we will have to back to the recommendations of the Uwais Committee on Electoral Reform about the need to establish an Election Offences Tribunal. It is very important that we have such a tribunal, hopefully, with people of impeccable integrity who can handle such matters.
“Luckily, the Nigerian Bar Association has established a partnership with INEC and they have good teams of lawyers who are willing to offer their services free or at minimal cost to facilitate the job of INEC in the task of prosecuting electoral offenders.”
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