CSOs elevate alarm over alleged plot to exchange INEC chairman, 6 RECs with loyal occasion members

Civil Society Organisations have raised the alarm over alleged plans to exchange the Chairman of the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and 6 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) forward of the 2027 elections.

The stakeholders raised the alarm on Tuesday in Abuja on the Convention of Thought Leaders on Civic House, Poverty and Elections in Nigeria, organised by the African Centre for Management, Technique and Improvement (Centre LSD) in partnership with Girls’s Rights Development and Safety Different (WRAPA).

Talking, Professor of Political Science on the College of Lagos and a former commissioner within the Nationwide Election Fee (NEC), Prof. Adele Jinadu, stated within the subsequent six months, the current management of INEC must step apart, saying the CSOs have to be vigilant to forestall appointment of loyal occasion members within the electoral physique.

He maintained that the CSOs should keep away from a state of affairs the place partisan politicians are appointed into INEC.

Jinadu said: “I’m saying this now, as a result of I can clearly see makes an attempt to invade INEC. You don’t need to say it, forgive me however these of us who’ve our ears on the bottom, we all know that course of is happening now, and we now have seen photos of it already.

“Within the subsequent six months, by November, the current management of INEC should step apart. I feel we must be vigilant and stop that from taking place.

“The one manner we are able to stop that’s to ensure that if and when that occurs and we all know those that are partisan politicians who’re going to be INEC Commissioners.

Additionally talking, one other Professor of Political Science and Director, Centre for Democracy and Improvement, Jibrin Ibrahim, urged Nigerians to withstand their votes being stolen in 2027.

“The primary resolution, as I stated, is that we as Nigerians should mobilise ourselves to forestall our votes from being stolen and that may be performed. That’s my major emphasis.

“If we carry on interesting to them, they are going to simply be laughing at us. We’ll cross a legislation, we’ll change the Structure, however they are going to nonetheless maintain behaving the way in which they’re behaving,” Ibrahim famous.