by Abdulrazaq O Hamzat,
On August 1st 2017, Kwara Must Change announced the postponement of
the recall exercise of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki over the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) inability to formally
respond to our request for the certified copy of voter’s registration
list.
Sequel to our complaint about INEC lack of prompt response, Kwara Must
Change received an invitation to meet with leadership of the
commission yesterday, 3rd August, 2017 at their Kwara State head
office, located at Western Reservoir Road in Ilorin, the Kwara State
Capital.
At the brief meeting, which took place around 1pm yesterday, we were
made to understand that the state office INEC cannot release the copy
of the voters register as requested by Kwara Must Change.
Consequently, we were given a letter, which directed us to the
Chairman of the Commission in Abuja. (Copy Attached)
The letter with reference no INEC/KW/299/17, signed by the
Administrative Secretary, Mr Paul Atser has as its heading, ‘’RE:
REQUEST FOR KWARA CENTRAL VOTERS REGISTRATION LIST FOR THE RECALL OF
SENATOR BUKOLA SARAKI’’.
The letter reads in part, ‘’I am directed to request you to forward
your request to the Honorable Chairman of the commission for his
consideration.
It is important to state that, while we do not have any issue with
approaching the Honorable Chairman as directed, we find it strange
that a Senatorial District affair cannot be handled by the state
office of INEC. We contend that, if each of the 109 Senatorial
Districts of Nigeria has to approach the Chairman to request for their
voter’s registration list, certainly, it is going to bring some
unnecessary complications.
Furthermore, while we are currently seeking legal advice on this
development, not withstanding, we shall immediately proceed to the
office of the Honorable Chairman in Abuja for prompt action on our
request to fast the recall exercise.
We however maintained that, the recall of a Senator in 1 out of the
109 Senatorial Districts of Nigeria should be a local affair and the
release of the voter’s registration list, in our opinion, shouldn’t be
outside the capacity of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner.
In the main time, the general public should know that the recall
exercise of Senator Bukola saraki is still very much alive and it
shall be actualized in due time.
