PDP Urges Nigeria’s Electoral Body To Redeem Its Image In Upcoming Elections

Nigeria's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the upcoming elections as an "opportunity" to regain the public's faith in the agency.

INEC, responsible for organizing and supervising all elections across Nigeria, came under fire earlier this year after the opposition challenged the agency for not being accurate. While INEC acknowledged there were "glitches" during the presidential elections, it dismissed claims the vote was not free and fair.

On Sunday, PDP's National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said that the upcoming governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states on Nov. 11 can be used as a "golden opportunity" for INEC to redeem the controversial image.

"The INEC Chairman must note that the integrity of an election process is directly related to the confidence of the electorate," Ologunagba was quoted as saying by Punch. "These elections present INEC with a golden opportunity to redeem its largely battered image by-product of the 2023 elections."

"The PDP, for the umpteenth time, demands the immediate removal of the openly compromised Imo State INEC REC, Prof. Sylvia Agu" as she is in "direct relation of a national officer of the APC," he said.

Ologunagba noted that "there are allegations that she is being further compromised to assist the APC to rig the November 11 governorship election in Imo State."

After President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was announced as the election winner on Feb. 25, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party slammed INEC for not having a fair election due to BVAS malfunction.

The INEC revealed in July that it will deploy 11,355 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines in the upcoming elections. The governorship elections will take place in 2,244 polling units in Bayelsa, 3,508 polling units in Kogi, and 4,758 polling units in Imo.

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu held a meeting in June and urged media executives to tell the agency what they witnessed during previous elections to ensure that INEC can improve the electoral process in the future.

"Clearly, there are many positives coming from the general elections and at the same time, we admit that there are many challenges in the last elections," Yakubu said at that time. "There are several election litigations at the various elections tribunals nationwide while we should be careful not to touch on issues that are clearly subjudice."

He acknowledged that many Nigerians, including journalists, were not able to vote because the laws forbade them from voting as a person could vote only where they were registered. Hence, most journalists couldn't vote because they were doing ground reporting somewhere else rather than their registered location.