African Democratic Congress, (ADC) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to evaluate and stop the use of political academic individuals who would serve as collation and returning officers for the impending general elections slated for 2027.
This was made known in a press release made on Monday signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the opposition political party, Bolaji Abdullahi. The press release came after recent reports made in the media about how more than 600 senior university academics in Northern Nigeria have endorsed the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in the year 2027.
Abdullahi has confirmed that it is a right of every Nigerian to endorse political individuals of his/her own choice.
However, he noted that people who publicly identify themselves with a political faction would not be neutral and thus could not possibly act as impartial umpires when counting votes and deciding on the winner of an election where the said candidate is involved.
Abdullahi stressed that people who campaigned for a particular candidate should never hold any administrative position that would decide the outcome of the contest.
In order to ensure the validity of the vote, he recommended that the INEC should formulate and make public the disqualification requirements for prospective officials of the election who would be seen as having campaigned for a particular candidate.
Furthermore, Abdullahi wanted the electoral commission to disclose the list of proposed returning and collation officers long before election day so that both political parties and other members of the public could examine and question the composition of such lists.
It is his view that the integrity of the election is dependent on the neutrality of the administrators of the process, and that it is unacceptable that people will ever have a situation whereby self-declared political factions become in charge of counting votes in the national elections.
