The former Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mike Igini, has raised concerns over the amendments to the Electoral Act by the National Assembly, warning that presiding officers could face serious threats at polling units during the 2027 general polls.
Igini said this during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday.
He said the danger of the amendments to the Electoral Act, as passed by the National Assembly, is to allow the use of incident forms by presiding officers during the collation of results, instead of the real-time transmission of results as advocated by Nigerians.
The former INEC resident electoral commissioner submitted that the recourse to manual computation of election results, as provided in the amended Electoral Act, is another version of introducing the incident form because there will be no network to transmit results electronically.
“When we introduced the card reader, we decided to have an application for those who don’t have fingers.
“We were looking for an all-inclusive electoral process. But you know what happened? Politicians connived with INEC pool staff.
“That application for only those who don’t have fingers was now used to use the incident form. The whole community no longer had fingers, and all of that.
“You see, discretionary power can be abused. The danger of what is going to happen in 2027 is as follows.
“At the polling units, presiding officers’ lives are going to be in danger because where Nigerians are gathered, results of polling have been announced, everyone would look at their telephones, and you could see network.
“But the presiding officer says that there’s no network. You are going to put the life of that presiding officer in danger.
“Meanwhile, the children of all the political elites are not going to be at the polling unit. It’s the youth corps members that they’re going to be faced with.
“This is a clear danger. So, what they are going to do now is like an incident form. Another version of the incident form, which is for you to sabotage the entire thing.”
“It is indeed my humble recommendation to Mr. President that you are a man of history. You were a senior man to many of us in the struggle at a time when the journey of Nigeria and the prospect of democracy were less certain. My advice is that he should reject the bill,” he said.
He further reminded the president of the 2015 struggle to ensure elections reflect the people’s will.
