President Muhammadu Buhari was asked to fill the vacant seats of national commissioners in the Independent National Electoral Commission by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
This followed a motion moved by Honourable Edward Pwajok,
on the issue. Pwajok had in his motion noted that it is important that to fill the vacancies in view of the impeding gubernatorial elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States which have been scheduled to hold in November and December respectively.
“INEC presently is not properly constituted to carry out its constitutional functions of preparing for those elections, monitoring party congresses and updating register of voters,” Pwajok argued in his motion.
At the end of the debate of the motion, the House agreed that the tenure of most Resident Electoral Commissioners had expired, and as such, there is need to replace them immediately.
The lawmakers also noted that filling the vacancies in the Commission was necessary to avoid litigations that may arise over any action taken by the electoral body as presently constituted. As at Tuesday, the tenure of about 10 out of the 12 commissioners serving on the commission had expired.
Prof. Attahiru Jega, had following the expiration of his five year tenure, vacated office as the Chairman of INEC said alongside th six National Commissioners who were appointed the same day with him in 2010 on 30 June, 2015.
Four other National Commissioners have also vacated the commission at various times in July and August this year while the tenures of 16 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) have expired and they have already left the commission.
There have also been controversies over the continued stay of Amina Zakari who was appointed the Acting National Chairman of INEC after Jega’s departure.
Critics have argued that the Constitution did not provide for the position of acting chairman of INEC. This argument came up during Wednesday’s plenary as House Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, and House Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, argued over whether there was any provision for ‘acting’ chairman of INEC in the Constitution.
Ogor insist that what was stipulated was the appointment of a substantive chairman while Gbajabiamila affirmed that appointment in acting capacity can be dome as stop gap measure.
