The Independent National Electoral Commission says it js under pressure to conduct free, fair, and credible elections in 2023.
In an interview with Channels TV’s Politics Today on Friday, INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye, who oversees the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), made this claim.
Okoye claims that there is pressure on the commission to deliver inclusive, fair, and free elections.
“Yes, we are under pressure from the Nigerian people to deliver a credible, fair and transparent election in 2023, and that’s the only pressure I know about,” he said.
However, Okoye has promised Nigerians that the Commission will hold a credible general election in 2023 that complies with all recognized international criteria.
The INEC National Commissioner, meantime, rebuffed the recent demand that Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, the organization’s chairman, be fired and added that the procedure for doing so is rigorous.
Okoye said, “Let me make this point. The position of the INEC chairman is a very serious position and it is a constitutionally protected position. The process for the appointment of the INEC chairman is a very rigorous process. The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria makes nominations and then goes to the council of state.
“Thereafter he goes to the National Assembly for possible confirmation. Now the process and the procedure, the mechanism for the removal of the INEC chairman is also a very rigorous process. First, there must be an allegation and that allegation must conform to the provision of the constitution.
“Thereafter the allegation must be taken to the president and the president now approaches the National Assembly asking the Senate in this instance to remove the electoral management body.”