The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to bar any of its employees who participated in fraud during the polls on February 25 from running in the March 11 gubernatorial and State assembly elections.
The NBA announced the decision on Wednesday in Abuja in a statement that was authored by Akorede Habeeb-Lawal, the organization’s national publicity secretary.
The group also encouraged INEC to correct any issues that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines encountered during the presidential and national assembly elections.
“The NBA calls on INEC to make sure that all flaws or faults in the BVAS devices and other election equipment are resolved.
“All INEC officials, including collation and returning officers, with confirmed incidences of misconduct in the Feb. 25 polls should be removed from the March 11 elections,” it stated.
The group requested the Inspector-General of Police to make sure that police officers were deployed in time to be on duty for the elections on March 11.
It also urged political parties to inform their supporters and members of the need to refrain from any conduct that might violate the Election Act.
The NBA applauded Nigerians for their tenacity and dedication in performing their civic duty during the presidential and national assembly elections.
In the next elections for the state houses of assembly and governor, the group urged voters to demonstrate the same principles and tenacity.
The NBA recommended INEC to resolve some significant issues that surfaced during the Feb. 25 presidential and national assembly elections.
These include the late arrival of INEC officials and voting materials at the polling places, broken BVAS machines, and restricted or no transmission of the results from the polling units to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV),” it stated.
Additional difficulties include polling place insecurity, physical attacks on voters and officials, voter intimidation, ballot stealing, and destruction, among others.
The group said that just a quarter of the electorate, or 27.1%, were satisfied with the way the elections were conducted.
“The majority of voters, or 64.6%, said they are fairly satisfied,” it stated.
Additionally, it claimed that only 8.2% of voters gave the election a poor or extremely poor rating.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the NBA Election Working Group sent out over 1,000 INEC-certified observers from its 128 branches to witness elections in the 36 states and the FCT. (NAN)
