Election: ICPC chairman wants INEC to start thinking of moving towards electronic voting
Patrick Okohue
The chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye has challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to put modalities in place towards taking Nigeria to the era of electronic voting, with the aim of reducing the cost of election and also free some security officials normally engaged in election matters to attend to other security challenges in the country. While commending INEC for the effort put in place to organize a mostly peaceful election, the ICPC chairman said he was unhappy that despite the efforts infractions in the electoral process was noticed in many places, urging the commission to do everything within its powers to identify those involved in the infractions, assuring that the ICPC was ready to assist in prosecuting offenders with the aim of mitigating whatever might have been lost as a result. Prof. Owasanoye who spoke at the Situation Room briefing of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG)on the 2019 election at the Radison Blu Hotel in Ikeja GRA, Lagos, noted that besides the huge cost associated with the current mode of the nation’s electoral process, that it was worrisome to mop up all security operatives in the country to superintend election, without considering the need for security agencies to attend to other crimes in the land. According to him, “We need to move beyond this present situation, because whether we like it or not, a crime is being committed now, across many areas of the country, yet all security agencies are mopped up for election matters, we need to do more to ensure that at least those who live in urban areas are able to vote inj electronics mode, so we can reduce the number of security agents needed for election.” The ICPC chairman also appealed to INEC make provision for its officials involved in election duties like providing food and other provisions to guide against undue influence from political party agents.
