Igini: Electoral Act Has Created Moral Panic Among Parties

*Says INEC has shut all windows of rigging 

*We tracked over N200bn official transaction from government accounts before 2019 elections, NFIU discloses 

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The immediate past Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Mike Igini, said the Electoral Act 2022 had created moral panic among political parties and their candidates ahead of the 2023 elections. Igini stated this yesterday in Abuja during the Anti-Corruption Situation Room (ACSR) Programme organised by HEDA Resource Centre.

The former REC said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had closed all the windows of rigging, hence the panic.
Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Modibbo Tukur, explained that there was a correlation between cash and election rigging in Nigeria. Tukur said there were official transactions to the tune of N200 billion before the 2019 general election.

Igini said the 2022 Electoral Act was the outcome of efforts under the leadership of former Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, since 2011.
According to him, “Even before we came to INEC, we have identified some statutory provisions for election rigging in Nigeria and every provision, we made proposals. But those proposals were rejected over time by the lawmakers until 2022.

“This year of our Lord 2022, when, perhaps, they had the Damascus experience and everything that was rejected before was passed and it was assented to by the president on the 25th of February this year.

“Today, that legal framework is the basis of the moral panic in the land. INEC made a total of 91 proposals, out of which 48 were accepted by the National Assembly.”

Igini noted that the reality of what had been passed was that power had now been returned to the people.
He stated, “With the 2022 Electoral Act that has secured INEC innovations, if only the people are aware that power has been taken back to them, that the polling unit is now the centre of the universe in our electoral process.

“Elections are now won and lost at the polling units, no longer at ward collation centres, local government collation centres. This is the basis of the moral panic in the land today.”

Igini hinted that most of the senatorial, House of Representatives, and governorship candidates might not be known until two days to the elections, because of the litany of litigations in courts.

He said, “So you all know that in the 2023 elections, we are going to contest, many of senatorial candidates, House of Representatives, state Houses of Assembly, and some governorship candidates will not be known before the day of the election, because as we speak, they are in court.

“Section 285 says they will spend 180 days, that is half a year. It is only in Nigeria that on a pre-election matter we spend half a year. The only thing I worry about is my constituency, the judiciary, and if Nigeria will die, Nigeria will die because of we lawyers, the way we now conduct ourselves in this country.
“As we speak, people are in court, only presidential candidates have settled at the moment. Others are not settled. Their candidature will never be known. Remember the Bayelsa governorship candidate was never known until after the election?”

Igini stressed that going by the provisions of Section 91 of the Electoral Act, political parties do not need police permit to hold rallies.
The NFIU director general, who was represented by Mr. Badaru Abubakar, said, “At NFIU, our role is to advise other relevant agencies, we analyse all the transactions we get, we send those reports to relevant security agencies. We at NFIU, we are not supposed to be seen; we are only supposed to be felt. On our own part, we are doing our best.

“Before 2019, every year we used to have report of about N100 billion official transactions. But in 2019, to show you the correlation between cash and election rigging in Nigeria, in 2019 alone, we had over N200 billion official transactions from government accounts. So, you can now see the link between election crime and cash.”

Tukur disclosed that the agency had already made suggestions to the government on how to curb those leaks.
According to him, “One of it was the Terrorism and Financing Act – no individual can do a transaction of above N5 million in cash. Also, no corporate organisation can do a transaction beyond N10 million in cash. Although we have loopholes on suggestion we made to government, we stand our ground. All these things are done to curb all other crimes.”

On his part, Chairman of HEDA, Olarenwaju Suraju, said they did not have to wait till election day before they start making some of the necessary public statements.

“The takeaway from here is that the election is not rigged only on election days, it happens before and we need to start identifying those stakeholders that are responsible for some of these atrocities or activities,” he said.