2023: Senator Yusuf knocks INEC for allegedly abdicating its responsibility

By Haruna Salami

The role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the 2023 elections has again been roundly condemned by the Senator representing Taraba Central, Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf.

Yusuf who spoke with some journalists covering the Senate on Wednesday said for the umpteenth time that he is “very concerned” about the way INEC is managing the Electoral Act, which was passed by the National Assembly and gave Nigerians high hopes.

“I don’t think they have been managing it as an institution; they have been managing it as individual idiosyncrasies. I’m not happy with that. I have said it not once that the power the law has given them, they do not want to executive it, but want to push it to courts”.

He said even now the law says they have 7 days to review the election, “but they saying if the review, they are not going to implement what they reviewed, that people should go to court.

“I don’t think that is right; it is very wrong. They are the ones creating a lot of problems for people in this country. If the IREV figures and the BVAS figures are inconsistent, they should take a bold decision and say look, from the law that established us, this cannot be done. Therefore, let the others go to court.

READ ALSO: Muslim customs officer caught live on TV with

“INEC is not doing what supposed to be done. Some of us are not happy about it. I said it once, I said it twice and I will continue to say it.

“It is INEC that is making the electoral process more challenging because of personal interests of members and staff of INEC.

According to him, in Taraba, his home state, electoral umpire has done a lot of “messing up”, which they have clearly seen, adding that “where primaries are not held, they said, they were held. We have gone to court for 8 months, from High Court to Appeal Court and to Supreme Court. The courts have said what they did was not right.

The Taraba lawmaker suggested that the incoming 10th National Assembly may have to look at the 2022 Electoral Act with the aim of amending it, though he was of the view that the problem of the country is not with the laws, but those saddled with the implementation.

Meanwhile, in this area of dwindling government revenues, Senator Yusuf, a renown banker said over N6 trillion ground rent is being owed the Federal Government.

He stated this through a motion at Senate plenary on Wednesday, which has made the upper chamber to set up a powerful Ad-hoc committee to probe the matter.

According to him, government is looking for money and if government agencies saddled with revenue generation “sit down and they are not doing what they are supposed to do, it is a good reason to do a thorough investigation to see what money government has lost over time and see how they will recover it”.

He urged the executive arm of government to do its bit when the report of the investigation eventually gets to them so that it will not go in the way of previous efforts of the legislature that never see the light of day.