Kogiflame
The Executive Director Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR) based in Kogi state, Comrade Idris Miliki has condemned a Commissioner, Mr Funsho Olorunfemi in Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission,(SIEC) for participating in the activities of the the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state.
A political meetings that was strictly for party members in Kabba/Bunu local government area, of the state, the SIEC Commissioner was alleged to have participated in that meeting despite the fact that he is not supposed to be partisan.
Reacting to the issue, Comrade Miliki said It is very unfortunate the nature of impunity that existed in the process of appointment of members of Kogi SIEC.
According to him, the Civil Society Organizations and the media fought tooth and nail before the membership of SIEC was constituted that has the Chairman and Commissioners that will conduct local government elections in the next four years.
His words, “The law is very clear because it was stated unequivocally that a member of the commission should not belong to any political party, meaning that the person should not be at any time be seen as being partisan because members of the commission both at state and national are expected to be neutral in all their activities that has to do with elections involving political parties
“Therefore it is expected that the state house of assembly suppose to have underground fact check to uncover the antecedence of the appointed membership of the commission, but instead the members were screened expressly and asked to go
“The unfortunate situation right now is that we have a state house of assembly that is rubber stamp in nature and were so subservient to the person that brought them to the assembly.
He mentioned that the fault came from the people that recommended the members to the governor for approval adding that they ought to know that such people are not qualified by law and should not be appointed because they will be saddle with the responsibility of conducting elections among registered political parties.
He stressed further that the appointment is statutory meaning they must be screen and be confirmed by a legitimate body which are the legislators.
‘The lawmakers were elected legally and they were expected to have done a background check before confirming the membership of the commission , but they failed because they don’t want to offend their principal by doing the right things as spelt out by the law.
“All these anomalies had negative effect on the election because the council election conducted in December 12 last year in Kogi State, up till now there was no result but winners of the election have been declared, inaugurated and they were collecting salaries,” he said.
