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By Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJA – Former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has called for the immediate implementation of the recommendation of the National Electoral Reform Committee to avert rigging of future elections.

The ex-Vice President who stated this in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists on Monday said the 2019 elections fell below the benchmark recorded in 2015 in terms of credibility.

According to him, “One way of addressing the lapses is to implement the salient recommendations of the National Electoral Reform Committee, NERC, headed by former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais. The second, is the creation of Electoral Crimes Commission.

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“One of such recommendations, which will enhance the independence of the supposedly Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is the recommendation that the power to appoint the Chairman and board of the INEC be taken away from the President and given to the judiciary.”

To guarantee free and credible polls, Atiku advocated strong proactive interventions saying, “our electoral system needs not just to be brought up to date, by the acceptance of the amendments to the Electoral Act passed by the eight National Assembly, we also need to be up to tomorrow, by taking steps today to ensure that the lapses that made it possible for the 2019 elections to be manipulated or rigged are addressed.”

The statement further read : “Of all three arms of government, the Judiciary is the least affected by elections, meaning that it has the highest objectivity in matters relating to the INEC. It is therefore in the best position of the three arms, to appoint a chairman and board members for the electoral body that are impartial, competent and patriotic.

“This recommendation may seem like a small change, but my experience in life has taught me never to underestimate the big difference small changes can make.

“Nigeria today faces a lot of challenges, chief of which are security and economic revival. To effectively tackle these problems, a government must have an honest and indisputable mandate.

“Where you have an administration whose mandate is considered tainted, such a government will lack sufficient moral authority to tackle the myriad of problems this great nation currently faces.”

Vanguard

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