The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has requested that any Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff involved in election fraud on February 25 be barred from participating in the next governorship and state assemblies elections on March 11.
In a statement released Wednesday in Abuja and signed by the NBA’s National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Habeeb-Lawal, the NBA made this request.
The association also told INEC to fix bugs or problems with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines during the presidential and national assembly elections.
“The NBA urges INEC to ensure that all bugs or glitches in the BVAS machines and other election technology are fixed and improved.
“All INEC staff, including collation and returning officers, with proven cases of misconduct in the February 25 elections should be excluded from the March 11elections, “it said.
The association asked the Inspector-General of Police to ensure that the police officers on duty for the March 11 elections were put in place on time.
It also asked political parties to teach their members and supporters how important it is to refrain from doing anything against the Electoral Act.
During the presidential and national assembly elections, Nigerians showed great strength and determination in their civic duties. The NBA praised them for this.
The group asked people to show the same values and resolve in the upcoming elections for governor and state houses of assembly.
The NBA asked INEC to fix some of the significant problems seen during the presidential and national assembly elections on February 25.
“These include the late arrival of INEC officials and ballot materials at the polling stations, malfunctioning BVAS machines, limited or non-transmission of the results from the polling units to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), “it said.
Other problems include a lack of safety at polling places, violent attacks on voters and election officials, voter intimidation, stealing and destroying ballots, and more.
The association said their observers’ findings showed that only a quarter of the voters, or 27.1 per cent, were happy with how the elections were run.
“The majority of the voters representing 64.6 per cent said they are somewhat satisfied, “it said.
It also said that its observers had found that only 8.2% of voters thought the election was poor or very poor.
As the News Agency of Nigeria reported, the NBA Election Working Committee sent over a thousand INEC-accredited observers from 128 different chapters of the association to monitor the polls in all 36 states and the FCT.
