By Akubulu Ngozi
Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has stated the consequences of appointing political parties as Resident Electoral Officer, REC, saying that, the problem Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are facing in conducting credible elections would be complicated by the appointment partisans.
Falana made the comment while commenting on the newly-appointed INEC RECs, some of whom were alleged to be members of political parties on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
According to him, it is not possible to have a political loyalist as a REC and still have a credible election.
He said, “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.”
