The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday announced that it might move sensitive materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria to another location over the meddling of the Governor of the bank in politics.
Speaking during a consultative meeting with the media, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, while responding to a question on the political ambition and partisanship of Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the commission might be forced to seek alternative arrangement for the handling of sensitive materials.
He said the apex bank was responsible for storage and movement of sensitive materials, and that the commission had never doubted its capacity to discharge that responsibility.
“But I understand the context in which the question was asked. But you should also understand the context in which events are unfolding. As we speak, our Director of Litigation and Prosecution is in court.
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“There is a case in court. We have been invited to state our own side of the story. We usually refrain from talking about such issues because there are essentially subjudice.
“But we are already talking about what alternatives are available to us, in case we need to change the arrangement for handling of sensitive materials. We have started thinking about it. We are aware of the situation.
“We will watch the situation. We still have nine months before the next general elections. Things may be addressed before then. I want to assure you that we will not jeopardise conduct of the election by creating a misconception around the situation in the process.”
The INEC chairman also said the commission will deploy both manual and electronic methods in transmission of 2023 election results.”
According to him, the provision of the Electoral Act 2022 on the management of results is still basically manual, involving the recording of results on forms and their delivery to various levels of collation until declaration and returns are made.
Noting, however, that the law still provides for e-transmission of results, Yakubu, quoting Section 64 of the Electoral Act, said electronic transmission of results can only be done in the event of dispute during the course of collation.
He said there was need to clear misconception around e-transmission of results because many Nigerians equate it with electronic voting where polling can take place from any location.