Unbundling of INEC underway — Momoh

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be unbundled and restructured to enhance its capacity for electoral management and to deepen the nations’ democracy.
The director general of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Professor Abubakar Momoh, stated this in Abuja yesterday, at a stakeholders’ meeting and policy brief on “Election Violence and Mitigation Tool (EVMT)” organised by the Cleen Foundation, UKAID and TEI.
 “INEC is already overburdened and many believe that there is need for its restructuring. The commission is working on the unbundling process, looking at the Electoral Act to make its findings and recommendations to the National Assembly,” Momoh said. 
He said the increasing clamour for special courts to fast-track prosecution of electoral offences was also being worked out by INEC.
 Momoh said it was difficult for the commission to prosecute electoral cases in normal courts due to the large number of litigations, those involved and the financial resources needed for the exercise.
He said INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, would not spare any staff indicted for electoral malpractices in the just concluded Rivers State rerun elections or any other one for that matter.
He added that INEC had always been supportive of the Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais’ electoral reform committee recommendations, but lamented that powerful interests were making its implementation difficult.
Among the key recommendations of the Uwais report is the unbundling of INEC, setting up of election offences commission and stopping the president from appointing INEC chairman among others.
Acting executive director of the Cleen Foundation, Benson Olugbuo, said the EVMT policy brief was meant to streamline and harmonise the existing instruments or policies on mitigating electoral violence.
He said the theme of the meeting, “Intervention for Preventing and Mitigating Electoral Violence in Nigeria: Issues and Policy Recommendations” was meant to predict the risk of violence in the electoral process, and evolve adequate policy and advocacy to prevent and control such violence.
Also, human rights and public affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, said the design and standardised instruments posed different policy implications for different electoral stakeholders, especially government, INEC, political parties, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media among others.