Rights group wants INEC to prosecute erring officials

Barrister Clement Nwankwo, Director Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) made the call while addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja on the gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly Elections.He also condemned in the strongest terms the role played by prominent public political officeholders and other politicians.He noted that whatever the INEC officials in the various states […]

Barrister Clement Nwankwo, Director Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) made the call while addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja on the gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly Elections.
He also condemned in the strongest terms the role played by prominent public political officeholders and other politicians.
He noted that whatever the INEC officials in the various states sent to Abuja, the INEC headquarters was compelled to accept them as the HQ helplessly watched peoples mandates being subverted.
He mentioned that the situation room acknowledges and commended the significant improvements in the electoral process made by INEC.
He said that the situation room obtained information from networks of field observers and partners which indicated numerous cases of electoral misconduct, process violations, polling logistics problems, cases of election related violence and killings.
“Situation room is further concerned about the overall conduct of the elections in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, where there were good grounds to question the credibility of the elections results in both states,” he said.
He called upon INEC to urgently take steps to clinically scrutinise the final collated results from Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states against the polling unit results and make a reasoned judgment about them.
“In our view INEC should concern itself with possible negative perceptions of the elections in the three states and ensure that it takes every necessary step to protect the integrity of the elections in the states, as a way of strengthening the trust of the electorate in the voting process”, Nwankwo said.