PDP now behaving like APC while in opposition — Oyekanmi

When will the registration of voters stop officially before the 2019 general elections?

What the law says is that it should not be later than 60 days before the general elections. But we have to consider the back-end activities that the commission has to do. For instance, if we shut down in December, it is not likely that those who register in December will get their PVCs before January because there are some back-end activities we need to carry out to produce the cards, especially from registration to production of PVCs. You know that apart from those who just register, there are those seeking transfer. There are those who have their PVCs damaged. All these things have to be done and new PVCs issued to them before the 2019 general elections. In order to achieve that, we need to stop earlier by December. But that date has not yet been fixed by the commission.     

I read a report suggesting that INEC has no money for the coming polls. Are you not worried that the INEC budget for 2019 general elections has not been passed by the National Assembly?

We are not worried because the Federal Government is aware of the vital nature of the general elections. The National Assembly is also aware of the importance of the general elections. We are confident that they will do the needful at the appropriate time. So, don’t believe it when you hear it from wherever it is coming from. A lot of things come out of the social media that we need to be careful about. The money will come because the elections have to be conducted since it is a constitutional matter. And the Federal Government is fully aware of what is going on. And this is not the first general elections. We have been conducting general elections since 1999. You can go back in history to see how election budgets were planned, released and presented. Then, you will know that this is not something new. It’s a sovereign matter. Eventually, it will be done. So, the government will provide the money. I’m very confident. 

INEC did verification exercise on a failed plan to recall Sen. Dino Melaye in Kogi State. Some commentators said it was politically motivated. What is the take of INEC on this?

INEC’s actions are guided by the extant laws. We have the 1999 Constitution as amended. We have the 2010 Electoral Act as amended. Every action we take is guided by the provisions of both laws. What does the law say about a recall? First of all, the constitution gives voters the right to recall their representatives in the state assemblies, in the House of Representatives and in the senate. There is a procedure for it. And what is the procedure? You write a petition. 50 per cent of voters in that constituency can write a petition to INEC to say that they want to recall their representative for one reason or the other. INEC is not in a position to judge or ask questions about why. What the law says INEC should do is to accept that petition and act within 90 days. And the process is that when you receive a petition, you notify the person or the legislator against whom the petition is written about the existence of the petition and you set out the modalities. The first thing in the series of activities is to issue a notice of the recall. Then, you carry out verification. Now, that verification is very vital. What is it about? Some people bring signatures and names to say they are the ones recalling the legislator. What we do is that we invite all those who signed to come out. We have the register of voters that contain the names. When you present yourself, we verify your names, signatures, and the details with what we have. If the two details are not consistent, you cannot go to the next stage. 

So, that is very critical. And in the last recall exercise in Kogi West, when we compared the figures and went through the process of verification, at the end of the day, only 5.34 per cent of the registered voters could be verified. Of course because it didn’t get to the threshold of 50 plus one per cent, we could not go to the stage of referendum. So, the process stopped right there. However, the law gives the constituents the opportunity and right to represent their petitions if they think something went wrong. But whatever they do, it will still be subject to the same process. What I’m saying in essence is that we cannot afford to be political or do anything otherwise than what the law stipulates for that process. INEC’s mandate is to conduct a verification exercise. If that passes through, after fulfilling all the requirements, we can now go for referendum for a yes or no. It is only when we get to that referendum and the yes is in majority against the no, then we notify the National Assembly to tell them what has happened. The process can now be completed. 

Why is INEC not considering the possibility of prosecuting those responsible for fake signatures in the recall petition?  

The law does not give the commission the power to either arrest or prosecute. That is not within INEC’s mandate. That is the simple answer as to why we cannot do that. But the law also gives INEC the opportunity to scrutinise what is coming. And that is the context I want Nigerians to appreciate what INEC has done, especially in the case of Kogi West. That process of verification is key; and it is going to establish what you are coming up with. If it is not a true reflection of your petition or what people really want, then it cannot pass through. And it is very clear to us to see the percentage that turned up and verified against the requirement. It is not just possible. 

So, that is the extent to which the law gives INEC mandate to cover. But to begin to arrest and prosecute, it belongs to another agency of government entirely.

The former ruling party in Nigeria, the PDP, has been accusing the commission of conniving with the APC in order to rig the 2019 general elections. How will you react to such allegation?

Incidentally, if you cast your mind back, when the PDP was in government and the APC was in opposition, this was precisely what the APC was doing; accusing the commission of conniving with the PDP. I think it is in the nature of politicians to pounce on INEC. They are used to this sort of accusation. But the truth of the matter is that INEC is not on anybody’s side when it comes to our mandate. Since this leadership of the commission came on board in November 2015, we have made it very clear that only the votes people cast will determine who leads them. There are no two ways about it. You cannot rig elections in this country. If you want to be voted in, go and meet the people with your manifesto and convince them. Our own duty is to conduct elections. And it has to be free and transparent. And that is what we are doing. We are putting additional measures in place to ensure that only the votes count. 

So, my assurance is that the PDP should be rest assured that INEC will not connive with anybody. A level playing ground will be provided for everybody. Some of the elections we have actually conducted, the PDP has been winning. Why hasn’t the PDP told us that we are conniving with anybody? If you do an analysis of some of the recent elections we conducted, the PDP won in some of them, if not many of them. Is it that when they win elections, we don’t connive? But when they lose elections, we connive. This message is not just to the PDP, but to all Nigerians. They should give us benefit of doubt that the commission has reiterated that it will not allow any form of rigging in elections. They will follow due process of law. We will conduct elections and make them transparent, free and fair. At the end of the day, it is the votes that people cast that will count.