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INEC chair urges lawmakers to fast-track implementation of electoral reforms
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has called on lawmakers to accelerate the approval of electoral law reforms.
Speaking Thursday in Abuja at a meeting with the European Union Election Observation Follow-up Mission to Nigeria—headed by Barry Andrews, who previously led the EU Mission for the 2023 General Election—Yakubu stressed the importance of timely legislative action.
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The INEC chairman argued that prompt passage of electoral amendments is essential for the commission’s preparation for upcoming elections.
“Uncertainty over the legal framework for the election can unsettle the work of the commission as the election draws nearer,” Yakubu said.
He disclosed that INEC has examined all eight recommendations specifically targeting the commission within the European Union Election Observation Mission’s (EU EOM) analysis of the 2023 general election.
Yakubu provided historical context, explaining that the 2019 EU EOM produced 30 recommendations—11 directed at INEC, with three classified as priority items and eight as general recommendations.
By contrast, the 2023 EU EOM report generated 23 recommendations, with eight (34.8%) requiring INEC action. Just one qualified as a priority recommendation.
The other 15 recommendations (65.2%), including five designated as priorities, call for action from various entities such as the executive branch, legislature, judiciary, political parties, and civil society organizations.
“The commission has carefully considered all eight recommendations specifically addressed to us in your report,” Yakubu said.
“Action has already been taken on those aspects that require only administrative measures for implementation.”
“Similarly, action is being taken on cross-cutting recommendations that require collective action between INEC and other bodies and stakeholders while waiting for the conclusion of the ongoing legal review by the National Assembly on the recommendations that require legislative intervention.”
The chairman explained that EU recommendations, along with input from other domestic and international election observers, informed INEC’s comprehensive post-election analysis of the 2023 general election through consultations with various institutions and stakeholders.
This review process yielded 142 recommendations for electoral improvements, and INEC released its comprehensive report on the 2023 general election more than twelve months ago.
“As you are aware, an election is a process governed by law. Many of your recommendations require a review of our electoral legal framework,” Yakubu said.
“For this reason, the commission has engaged with the National Assembly, including participating in a retreat with the Joint Committee on Electoral Matters.”
Yakubu pledged INEC’s continued cooperation with the EU Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) and other monitoring organizations, acknowledging that their input has enhanced the standard of Nigeria’s electoral system and procedures.
Barry Andrews stated the mission’s purpose was to evaluate implementation progress on the recommendations from the EU EOM’s 2023 general election report.
Andrews noted the mission’s focus on understanding implementation levels, obstacles encountered, and issues surrounding future reforms, particularly those requiring constitutional changes.
“What we are here to do is to review the recommendations that came from the overall mission and were included in the final report published in 2023,” he said.
“We are very happy to see that there has been significant progress in addressing these recommendations.”
“We recognize that there are certain time constraints, both in terms of judicial and administrative reforms,” Andrews said.
“Of course, constitutional reform is somewhat more complex, but all of these recommendations are made against international standards that the EU, Nigeria, and most countries have committed to.”
He added, “We are part of a global election observation ecosystem that has helped to strengthen and support democracy—not only in Nigeria or Africa but across the world, including Europe.”
Referencing the off-cycle governorship elections held following the 2023 general election, Andrews mentioned the mission’s particular interest in measures taken to improve transparency in results publication—a critical recommendation from their earlier report.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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