From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Amid calls for the cancellation of the February 25 presidential election, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has stressed the need for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to comply with the rules guiding the conduct of the 2023 general election as contained in the amended Act.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and African Democratic Congress(ADC) have all called for the cancellation of the presidential election over alleged irregularities.
It is against this backdrop that the Commission has urged the electoral body to ensure that the outcome of the polls should reflect the popular decision of the people of Nigeria who have shown determination to choose who governs them.
The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chief Tony Ojukwu, SAN, stated this Tuesday at the programme of the February review Forum in furtherance of its 2023 Election Project, “Mobilizing Voters for Elections (MOVE)” which took place at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
The Forum among other things is meant to throw more light on the nature of complaints received by the Human Rights Situation Room with regard to the Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
Ojukwu said it was gladdening that following the outcry of the people, INEC has now found an alternative to the manual upload of results in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
He said that reports by NHRC monitoring officers show that issues of interferences, intimidation and other infractions by security and law enforcement operatives were very minimal, as there were few incidences in a few States.
He reminded security and law enforcement operatives to be aware that they would be held accountable for violations or abuses of the rights of citizens.
The NHRC boss frowned at the failure of INEC to comply with its own promise to upload election results duly signed by party agenda and entered into the BVAS, adding that it was surprising that early collation was based on manual documents rather than electronic upload.
He said it was not acceptable to transmit results manually when the law says it has not been transmitted electronically, adding that manual and electronic uploads should go simultaneously.
He said all issues of intimidation, hate speech, vote buying, denying people access to voting and voter suppression are to be investigated by the Commission as lots of such incidences were captured by the Commission’s monitors across the country, insisting that every violator must be held accountable.
Ojukwu however asked Nigerians to remain patriotic, peaceful and hopeful as according to him, INEC has woken to its responsibilities as votes are now being collated electronically.
In his remark, the Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre and Coordinator, Transition Monitoring Group, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, condemned INEC for its silence for days while the people complained about the manual upload of results rather than electronically.
He traced some of the problems plaguing Nigeria’s current electioneering process to the commercialisation and privatisation of party tickets by political parties.
Highlights of the event were the presentation of details of the February Report presented by Hilary Ogbonna, NHRC MOVE Project Coordinator and Special Adviser to the Executive Secretary on Human Rights.
Meantime, the National Human Rights Commission has reported the attempts of voter intimidation by thugs in some states of the federation.
In a report it received through its special monitoring activities, the commission states that voting was disrupted due to incidents of violence.
In its “Preliminary Statement of the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections,” signed by the Secretary of the commission, Tony Ojukwu, the NHRC stated, “There were various reports of attempts to intimidate voters and INEC officials by party supporters and thugs.
“These reports were received from states such as Rivers, Delta, Lagos, Kogi and Imo. NHRC monitors reported that in eight per cent of polling units, accreditation and voting were disrupted for various reasons, including the malfunctioning of election equipment and incidents of violence.”
The commission said it also got reports of vote-buying from 42 locations across the country “particularly in Lagos, Imo, Sokoto, Jigawa, Edo, Nasarawa, Jigawa and Kogi states. Voters were offered money or other incentives to influence their votes.”
The commission also observed the inability of law enforcement agents to checkmate violence at the polling units, adding that cases of human rights violations by security personnel were also reported.