Barely a week to the inauguration of a new government in Kogi State, the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh supplementary election in the state has been described as wrong.
This was the view of a Constitutional lawyer and public affairs analyst, Bily Dawodu in an interview with Daily Times on Wednesday. According to him, INEC should not have cancelled the election as it did but rather should look at the result of the election based on the accredited voters, rather than the numbers of registered voters in the state.
Dawodu advocated for the immediate review of the electoral law to take care of circumstances that took place in the election and to avoid future confusion in the electoral process.
According to him, “INEC was wrong in conducting a fresh election in Kogi, personally, I reason that INEC should have used the number of accredited voters, rather the number of registered voters in the state, all this problem would have been avoided.
“I am advocating that we review the electoral law so that this kind of occurrence would be avoided, of course, the case is in court now”, Dawodu said.
He added that he would have preferred Faleke to be allowed to continue as the Governorship candidate, stressing that although the All Progressives Congress (APC) had no choice than to present the now elected candidate because INEC asked for someone who took part in the primaries.
Speaking further, he applauded the current fight against corruption by the current administration, lamenting the looting of the country’s resources by a few individuals, adding that current moves by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute those found culpable was justifiable, but however cautioned that the rule of law should take paramount.
Credit: Daily Times
