INEC Sacks 30 Staff Over Election-Related Offences The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has reportedly fired at least 30 of its staff accused of aiding electoral malpractices across the country during the 2011 general election. According to the electoral body, sixteen of the dismissed staff were punished for their alleged involvement in election-related offences in Anambra state. Premium Times reported that other states whose elections led to the dismissal of INEC officials, are Imo (3), Edo (1), Zamfara (1), FCT (1), Delta (1), Oyo (2), Rivers (1), Lagos (1), and Osun (2). It was also gathered that one official based at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja was also shown the door for allegedly colluding with politicians to perpetrate electoral fraud. INEC announced that it’s also prosecuting nine out of its 12 staff apprehended for committing various forms of electoral offences during the governorship elections in six states in Nigeria. * INEC boss, Jega It was gathered that two out of the 12 electoral offenders have been discharged and acquitted while one was convicted. According to a letter INEC sent to a civil society group, Say No Campaign, in response to a Freedom of Information request, the electoral body stated that those dismissed or whose appointments were terminated committed offences such as refusal to carry out lawful duties and misleading the Commission. Other offences the dismissed staff were found guilty of are misconduct, disappearance with money meant for payment of allowances of ad-hoc staff, withholding ballot papers, manipulation of election results, possession of DDC machines and illegal entries in the register of voters. The letter, dated July 14 and signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Augusta Ogakwu, was in response to a request by the civil group on June 9 in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, for the list of the electoral offenders. Kayode Idowu, media aide to the INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega could not be reached to comment for this story as he did not answer or return calls made to his mobile telephone call. It could be recalled that Jega had in 2013 admitted the presence of corrupt officials and staff in INEC, who were not only aiding and abetting rigging, but also committing other electoral malpractices. “INEC officials are not immune to prosecution. Since we came here, as a Commission we have prosecuted INEC officials, who have been clearly found guilty of breaching established laws, rules and regulations and we have also quietly shown people the way out. Probably, it was not well advertised,”he said during the public presentation of Strategic Programme of Action of INEC covering 2012 to 2016. “There were many people that were indicted who were not faithful due to criminal activities which clearly were incompatible with the objectives and responsibility that they were supposed to bring to this job. We have retired people. “We have dismissed people and asked people to withdraw their services. We have done a lot quietly and it is not something that really should have been advertised. INEC has always come under criticisms for not conducting credible elections across the country. After the 21 June, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti state, the All Progressives Congress, APC, had accused the electoral body for not conducting a free and fair poll. The ruling party in the state, whose candidate, Kayode Fayemi lost to Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s candidate, Ayodele Fayose, had complained of electoral irregularities before, during and after the elections. The APC had since challenged the results of the election in court.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 08:48:59 +0000
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